Periarthritis of Shoulder

This is an aseptic inflammation of soft tissues around the shoulder joint with pain difficult to locate but radiated to upper arm and forearm and exacerbated by arm movement. Chronic patients may have muscular atrophy and stiffness of shoulder joint. Differential diagnosis: Patients with deficiency of qi and blood may suffer from fatigue, weakness, poor appetite, aggravation of symptoms when tired, numbness of involved limb, pale tongue with white coating, and thready and weak pulse. Patients with this condition caused by cold and damp pathogens may suffer from chills, aversion to cold, symptoms relieved by heat, tendency to press and knead local lesion, cool sensation in involved limb, pale tongue with white coating, and deep pulse. And patients with trauma of local soft tissues may suffer from local pain with aversion to pressing the lesion and with a history of injury, petechiae on tongue, and wiry or uneven pulse. Treatment: Foot massage: The massage is applied to shoulder (10), elbow joint (60) and trapezius muscle (11) reflecting areas (Fig. 60). Foot acupuncture: 1) Meridianal acupoints: At Kunlun (BL 60), Jinggu (BL 64), Lidui (ST 45) and Qiuxu (GB 40) acupoints, a reinforcing technique is applied to patients with qi and blood deficiency and a strong reduchag technique is applied to patients with cold and damp pathogens or external trauma, the needles are retained for 20 minutes. 2) Foot acupoint: At Ischium 1 (FA-P 18) acupoints, a moderate twisting stimulation is applied and the needle is retained for 20 minutes, and moxibustion after acupuncture is applied to patients with qi and blood deficiency.