Anterior Shoulder Dislocation

What is an Anterior Shoulder Dislocation?

Anterior shoulder dislocation is when the head of the humerus (your arm bone) pops out of the joint and ends up looking like a ball under your collar bone.

How does it happen?

In this case, the man was on a ladder and fell off, landing on his shoulder.  Luckily he didn’t break his collar bone in the process.

What does it look like?

The picture above sums it up. The affected shoulder way higher than the normal side.  He also had his arm extended out with his palm facing up.  The ability to move the arm was severely restricted.

How do you know if it will be okay?

That’s where the exam and x ray come into play.  I was able to move his arm without his assistance but it still hurt.  We went directly into x ray to take some pictures to see if anything was broken.

How do you fix it?

There is a technique where the patient lays on their back and the doctor puts his foot up in the patient’s arm pit.  The doctor grabs the patient’s wrist and traction’s down on the arm pulling it from lateral to medial across the mid line of the body.  This should relocate the arm back into it’s normal position.  Note this is good for anterior dislocations only.  Posterior dislocations are a different story.

How did the story end?

This patient was very happy I was able to relocate his shoulder back into place and he said he wanted to kiss me!  He started moving his arm all around again and I had to caution him that even though his anterior shoulder dislocation was reduced it could very easily pop out again so “take it easy!”

Dr. Robert Ebeling is a doctor of chiropractic in Colorado since 1990.  He practices in Englewood, Colorado.  (303) 377-1755