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A motor vehicle accident (MVA) can turn your shoulder into a punching bag taking a barrage of force from all angles leaving you with a long laundry list of injuries. It is an expected injury we see at Chambers Medical Group, one of the highest rated car accident medical care programs in Kentucky, and it usually begins with patients walking in favoring their shoulders not sure if it is just bruised or something more. The shoulder’s complex bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments all work together to allow the joint to move. When an MVA jolts it, the damage can vary wildly. How many different injuries can you end up with? Dr. Aaron Workman of Chambers Medical Group discusses the many different shoulder injuries that can occur following a motor vehicle accident.
Rotator Cuff
The rotator cuff is a team of four muscles and tendons that keep your arm in its socket. A sudden jerk, like slamming into a seatbelt or bracing against the dash, can tear, strain, or sprain it. The sharp pain that may be felt days following an accident, or weakness is classic for a rotator cuff tear or tendonitis. Next, the labrum, a ring of cartilage around the socket, can rip too. This is called a labral tear; it is common when your arm gets pulled or twisted in a crash. It might click or pop, and the ache deepens with movement.
Fractures
The collarbone, or clavicle can be susceptible to the seatbelts diagonal pull leading to a break. This can be immediately noticeable with swelling and a bump around the fractured area. The upper arm bone called the humerus can also suffer a fracture, especially near the shoulder joint. If you are involved in a high impact MVA, a fracture here can leave you with bruising and an arm that will not move without severe pain.
Joint Instability
Dislocations can also occur. The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint, and a hard hit from something like the airbag, or a side collision, can pop the ball (humerus) out of place. It is another severe pain with the arm looking out of place. You can suffer an AC joint separation which is where the collarbone meets the shoulder blade. A direct blow to this area can tear the ligaments leaving another painful bump and an ache when you reach across your body.
Soft Tissue
Whiplash does not just affect your neck, but it can strain muscles around the shoulder like the trapezius, deltoid, and the supraspinatus leaving them tight and sore. Bruises or contusions from blunt force can occur from hitting the door, with tender spots that linger. The frozen shoulder can also sneak up on you. Following an MVA, the pain and guarding of the muscles can stiffen the joint over time, turning it into adhesive capsulitis.
As you can see, a strained rotator cuff is the first chapter in a novel about shoulder injuries. One accident can give you injuries ranging from rotator cuff issues, labral tears, clavicle fractures, humerus breaks, dislocations, AC separations, muscle strains, contusions, and frozen shoulder. This gives us many distinct possibilities, and that is not even counting combo types of injuries and multiple graded injuries such as tears and sprains. An MVA can also cause injuries at the same site like a dislocation with a rotator tear leading the shoulder to have sharp pain, not move, or swell up. The best move is to ice the shoulder, rest and get it examined. At Chambers Medical Group these types of shoulder injuries are common. In some circumstances they may require orthopedic referrals, but our goal is to make sure you are where you need to be. If your shoulder is hurting following an MVA then find a Chambers Medical Group near you.
— This article is written by Aaron Workman, DC, one of the members of Chambers Medical Group’s team of car accident chiropractors who offer a variety of treatments and therapies ranging from diagnostic testing to various soft tissue therapies for car accidents and injuries in Kentucky.
