Hi Everyone,

I'm almost 14 months down the track from a pretty severe fall in which I sustained a number of injuries including a fractured glenoid (left shoulder), and while everything healed up fairly well, I still have extremely poor external rotation (0 - 5 deg active / 5 - 10 passive) and I feel like nothing I'm doing is making any real headway.

I'm hoping that I can tap into some of the knowledge and experience on this forum and get some opinion about whether I'm on the right path or whether I should be approaching this differently.

Original accident: Glenoid fracture, with open shoulder surgery performed at 4 weeks for glenoid repair & put 2 screws in).

I have had almost weekly physio since having the arm out of the sling (about 6 weeks after surgery) - mostly doing a lot of mobilisation and soft tissue work. I'm also doing a lot of Wikipedia reference-linkrotator cuff strengthening exercises and theraband work. My internal rotation seemed to come good (but not perfect) fairly quickly; extension isn't great but it's definitely made significant gains; external rotation is extremely poor (0 - 5 deg) and hasn't really improved since the original surgery.

In addition to the physio, I have had three hydrodilations and two arthriscopes. My original surgeon performed the first scope, and removed one of the screws and did some capsular release. The second scope was done by a different surgeon, who did some more release and cleaned out the joint space significantly. The surgeon indicated that the joint surface looks relatively good. There is one screw still in place, which is protruding about 8mm from the bone but is clear of the glenoid cavity (I' told it's just on the outside edge of the glenoid labrum).

For all the surgery and hydros, I would have expected some gains in ER. But essentially the 0 - 5 deg I have now is the same 0 - 5 deg I had when I ditched the sling 12 months ago. I'm told it's Wikipedia reference-linkadhesive capsulitis, but should't I expect to see some gains from the capsular releases at least, if not the constant physio and rehab?

Adam

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