Another taping anecdote

[nari]

67 yo man, with PHx of motorcycle accident with unreduced R clavicle # and ACJ damage ( not specified) about 40 years ago. R shoulder intermittently gives trouble, but short lived. Recently, quite severe pain, with loss of ER (50% due to pain), about gr 3-- strength and 20% loss of IR. Pain was worst with throwing and lying on the R side.

Traditional diagnosis I suspect would be torn RC. Strengthening and generally painful processes would have been the norm had he gone to PT.

I taped the posterior aspect of the shoulder, two strips, placed at random, after testing ULNTs, which were negative.
Within 24 hours, normal throwing action and no pain except on extreme range of ER.

Of course one can argue:
That it would have got better anyway in 24 hours. (After 3 days of pain+)
The ULNTTs resolved the sensitivity

and maybe that's perfectly reasonable to assume that all three, including taping, did the job.
Three days later - marginal discomfort lying on the R side.

Nari

[emad]

Nari :

You wrote that :

Traditional diagnosis I suspect would be torn RC

What the RC ?

Another point, extremely difficult for me to say that ULNTs are negative with patient with severe pain like that ,may be the ROM is limited so that you can not complete the ULNT to full ,so i suggest begining the ULNT from dital to proximal.

Regards
Emad

[nari]

emad

The RC is the rotator cuff.

All ULNTTs were able to be done fully, as only rotation was weak and painful.
Inclusion of cervical rotation/lateral flexion did not make any difference.

Nari

[Luke Rickards]

Hi Nari,

Why did you choose the posterior shoulder, and what was the orientation of teh tape. Just curious.

Luke

[nari]

Hi Luke

I chose the posterior shoulder area because that was tender and painful on horizontal flexion and the pain seemed to be located there, as well as in the elbow.

The tape (Leukoplast) was placed at random - just across the front of the HOH towards the infraspinatus and the scapular spine, and another strip above that meeting the first one halfway. Like a horizontal Y. I wanted to get as much bony surface as possible; more mechanoreceptors. Any sort of arrangement would have done, probably, and I went with instinct.

Fourth day on, and there is very little pain anywhere. ER is fine.

Nari

[Diane]

I wanted to get as much bony surface as possible; more mechanoreceptors. Makes sense to me.. great idea.

[Jason Silvernail]

I must be taping wrong.
I've tried this sort of thing several times, and it only very rarely helps. Usually they are still painful but now they are sticky, too.
J

[nari]

Jason

Can you enlarge on the sort of conditions you have tried taping? If there is an actual "pathology" from trauma, it may not help much.
Re the stickiness - the tape stays on until it literally peels off in the shower. May take days...

Nari