A shoulder dislocation refers to the incident when the head of the upper arm bone (humerus) is out of its socket. It often happens with sports injuries, accidents or without a trauma if patients have weak tissue. A shoulder dislocation always necessitates prompt medical with reduction to an anatomical joint position.
The shoulder joints are the most mobile joints in the human body. That’s why it often dislocates. A dislocated shoulder will be diagnosed when the head of the upper arm bone (humerus) is out of its socket (glenoid). Not uncommonly the humerus relocates itself after dislocation. The symptoms usually include a feeling of instability and severe pain in the shoulder.
Causes of a shoulder dislocation include injuries connected with sports or accidents and the habitual dislocations, where the tissue around the joint is too weak. In the majority of cases the head of the humerus dislocates forward and downward. Very rarely backwards or upwards. It often happens in sports where you do a lot of throwing or due to a direct trauma. The dislocation is very likely to injure or stretch some of the muscles, tendons, ligaments or even bones of the shoulder joint. All of these supporting tissues help to keep the shoulder joint in place. If they are damaged the joint becomes unstable and another dislocation gets facilitated. Besides the malposition of the shoulder, people with shoulder dislocation often have symptoms like extreme pain and therefore inability to move the arm, swelling and bruising at the shoulder, numbness, tingling or weakness in the arm, hand or fingers. A common injury due to a shoulder dislocation is the lesion of the axillary nerve, which results in numbness on the lateral part of the shoulder and a palsy of the deltoid muscle.
In the majority of cases the dislocated head of the humerus will be moved back into its socket by a doctor. This procedure is known as closed reduction. With successful reduction the extreme pain stops immediately and the arm can be moved again. To support the healing process of the injured joint the doctor may prescribe a sling or a brace to rest the arm for e few days. The painful and swollen area can be cooled with ice several times a day. In case that shoulder dislocation becomes a recurring (chronic) issue a surgery may become necessary. If ligaments have been torn or bone (mostly the glenoid) has been broken by the dislocation or if the doctors are unable to reduce the humerus, surgery will also be necessary to stabilize the joint and repair tissue damage.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
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