1. Background and purpose
Shoulder pain is a common symptom in musculoskeletal disease and has shown a tendency to increase in Korea. According to the Statistics of Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in Korea from 2004 to 2009, shoulder pain is the second most common disease in the Korean medical institution following low back pain, and medical expenditure was also the second highest.
therefore we developed Korean medicine clinical practice guidelines on shoulder pain using such evidence-based methodology as systematic literature review and meta-analysis for the Korean medicine treatments. this guidelines can be used to make clinical decisions of Korean medicine doctors and related Korean medicine specialists caring for the patients who suffer from shoulder pain, ROM limitation, and dysfunction of shoulder joint.
But people who are not Korean medicine doctor are not included in the user. And this guideline were also intended to help patients with shoulder pain make decisions by providing information of effective and standardized Korean medicine treatments.
2. Overview of disease
Shoulder pain is a common disease that 20 to 40 percent of the entire population experience more than once in their lifetime. Shoulder pain is a painful condition associated with the surrounding tissues of the shoulder joint including scapular region and the upper extremities. the main symptoms of shoulder pain are the pain and limited range of motion of shoulder joint (external rotation, internal rotation, external rotation, and flexion). And these symptoms are related to degenerative changes, ligament injury, muscle rupture and in ammation of the bursa of the shoulder joint. these include conditions such as adhesive capsulitis, rotator cuff syndrome, biceps tendonitis, calcific tendonitis, impingement syndrome, bursitis, myofascial pain syndrome and strain of shoulder joint. In the cases of pain originating from the lung, heart, cervical vertebrae and etc, shoulder pain after stroke, spinal cord injury and operation are not subject to this guideline.
