Southwest Center for Healthy Joints, S.C. - Where Motion is Life, Phone: 708 - 229 - 0101

Causes of Shoulder Joint Pain

One of the most common causes of joint pain is arthritis. The most common types of arthritis are:

Osteoarthritis (OA) - sometimes called degenerative arthritis because it is a "wearing out" condition involving the breakdown of cartilage in the joints. When cartilage wears away, the bones rub against each other, causing pain and stiffness. The most common cause of shoulder replacement, OA can occur without a shoulder injury, but this seldom happens since the shoulder is not a weight-bearing joint like the knee or shoulder. Instead, shoulder OA commonly occurs many years following a shoulder injury, such as a dislocation, that has led to joint instability and repeated shoulder dislocations, damaging the shoulder joint so that OA develops. When the resulting joint pain and stiffness become severe enough to affect a person's daily life and comfort, shoulder replacement may be recommended.
Post-traumatic Arthritis - may develop after an injury to the joint in which the bone and cartilage do not heal properly. The joint is no longer smooth, and these irregularities lead to more wear on the joint surfaces.
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) - produces chemical changes in the synovium that cause it to become thickened and inflamed. In turn, the synovial fluid destroys cartilage. The end result is cartilage loss, pain, and stiffness. RA affects women about 3 times more often than men, and may affect other organs of the body.
Other causes of joint pain include avascular necrosis, which can result when bone is deprived of its normal blood supply (for example, after organ transplantation or long-term cortisone treatment), and deformity or direct injury, such as a fracture, to the joint.
In some cases, joint pain is made worse by the fact that a person will avoid using a painful joint, weakening the muscles and making the joint even more difficult to move.
What's causing your shoulder joint pain? Is getting relief through joint replacement an option for you? These are just some of the answers that we can provide. But first, it's a good idea to be sure you have information about joint replacement.