Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffDislocated shoulder treatment involves putting your shoulder bones back into place. Your doctor may try some gentle maneuvers to help your shoulder bones back into their proper positions — a process called closed reduction. Depending on the amount of pain and swelling, you may need a muscle relaxant or sedative or, rarely, a general anesthetic before manipulation of your shoulder bones.
When your shoulder bones are back in place, any severe pain should improve almost immediately. However, your doctor may immobilize your shoulder with a special splint or sling for several weeks. How long you wear the splint or sling depends on the nature of your shoulder dislocation. Your doctor may also prescribe a pain reliever or a muscle relaxant to keep you comfortable while your shoulder heals.
Regaining your strength
After your shoulder splint or sling is removed, you'll begin a gradual rehabilitation program designed to restore range of motion and strength to your shoulder joint. Avoid strenuous activity involving your injured shoulder until you've regained full movement and normal strength and stability in your shoulder.
If you've experienced a fairly simple shoulder dislocation without major nerve or tissue damage, your shoulder joint likely will return to a near-normal or fully normal condition. But trying to resume activity too soon after shoulder dislocation may cause you to injure your shoulder joint or to dislocate it again.
Surgery
If your doctor can't move your dislocated shoulder bones back into position by closed reduction, surgical manipulation (open reduction) may be necessary. You may need surgery if you have a weak shoulder joint or ligaments and tend to have recurring shoulder dislocations (shoulder instability). In rare cases, you may need surgery if your nerves or blood vessels are damaged due to the dislocation.
- Sherman SC, et al. Shoulder dislocation and reduction. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 8, 2009.
- Ronai P. Exercise and shoulder pain. American College of Sports Medicine. http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Current_Comments1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11050. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- Uehara DT, et al. Injuries to the shoulder complex and humerus. In: Tintinalli JE, et al. Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide. 6th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2004. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=612479. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- Wang RY, et al. Management of the first-time shoulder dislocation in the athlete. In: Wilk KE, et al. The Athlete's Shoulder. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06701-3..50023-2&uniq=149671531&isbn=978-0-443-06701-3&sid=862689477#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06701-3..50023-2%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-0-443-06701-3. Accessed July 14, 2009.
- Dodson CC, et al. Anterior glenohumeral joint dislocations. Orthopedic Clinics of North America. 2008;39:507.
- Quillen DM, et al. Acute shoulder injuries. American Family Physician. 2004;70:1947.
- Questions and answers about shoulder problems. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Shoulder_Problems/default.asp. Accessed July 14, 2009.
