Development and prevention of frozen shoulder after acute aneurysm surgery

We conducted a study on periarthritis humeroscapularis or "frozen shoulder," a postoperative complication of aneurysm surgery. The purpose of this study was to seek the cause of this complication and the methods of preventing it in patients who undergo aneurysm surgery.

The diagnosis of frozen shoulder was based on the clinical presence of shoulder pain and difficulty in raising arms that developed within 3 months of surgery. Sixty-four patients who underwent aneurysm surgery with no motor deficit were examined and classified into three groups: (1) early surgery (29 patients in the acute stage after subarachnoid hemorrhage); (2) delayed surgery (19 patients in the chronic stage); and (3) elective surgery (16 patients with unruptured aneurysms).

The incidence of frozen shoulder was 41% in the early surgery group, 16% in the delayed surgery group, and 13% in the elective surgery group. The highest incidence of frozen shoulder was found to occur in the early surgery group and was attributed to the immobility of their upper extremities during postoperative treatment. Since patients who undergo surgery in the acute stage are often delirious and confused for several days after surgery, their arms are tied down by their sides in order to prevent them from inadvertently removing catheters such as the one for ventricular drainage. It seems that this manner of immobilizing the patient's arms is the cause of the development of frozen shoulder: Our study showed that if each arm was passively raised by turns above the patient's shoulder, the patient was able to maintain the range of motion of the upper arms and was less likely to develop frozen shoulder.

Inactivity of the shoulder joints due to immobilizing the upper extremities of patients after acute aneurysm surgery seemed to cause the development of frozen shoulder. The incidence of this complication was greatly reduced by keeping the patient's upper arms raised alternately to maintain their range of motion after acute aneurysm surgery.