Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Ä°stanbul Ãœniversitesi CerrahpaÅŸa Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Ä°stanbul Shoulder pain is a common symptom seen in the elderly and causes some difficulties usually in diagnosis and treatment. For this reason, the diagnosis of the elderly cases who admitted to our shoulder policlinic were investigated. Cases who have been evaluated routinely in our shoulder policlinic were evaluated retrospectively. Sixty one from 382 evaluated cases (15.9%) were in geriatric age group. 38 female and 23 male cases ranged 60 to 84 years. Duration of pain symptoms was 15 days to 10 years (mean: 11.6 ± 6.2 months). The distribution of these cases according to their diagnosis was as following: 32 (52.4%) cases with subacromial impingement syndrome (SIS), 16 (26.2%) cases with frozen shoulder, 5 (8.1%) cases with proximally humerus fracture, 3 (4.9%) cases with winging scapula (caused by accessory nerve in 1 case and long thorasic nerve in 1 case and SIS in 1 case), 2 (3.2%) case with polimyalgia rheumatica, 1 (1.6%) case with complex regional pain syndrome, 1 case with calcific tendinitis, and 1 case with axillary neuropathy. Rotatory cuff lesions which gathered under SIS title were the most common causes of shoulder pain in our elderly subjects. Cases with frozen shoulder came in second. But, a complete differential diagnosis should be made in elderly subjects owing to variety of the diagnosis’ Keywords : Shoulder pain, Geriatrics, Musculoskelatal system, Magnetic resonance imaging.