Date: 03.04.19
Location: Plymouth Marjon University
Total amount of hours: 47
The client is a 46-year-old female who leads a busy lifestyle, working long hours pushing heavy objects and hair dressing. This causes a large of strain on her upper back as well as stress of work, resulting in a lot of pain within the upper trapezius fibres. The client suffered an injury at their left shoulder 5 years ago, this doesn’t seem to currently cause the client much pain, however this still limits her to some daily activities.
After observing the clients ROM at the shoulder, it was clear that the client struggled during shoulder extension. The client struggled to reach full ROM in extension, whilst also finding it difficult to complete the action without any pain occurring. This suggests a weakness within the posterior deltoid, Teres major or latissimus dorsi muscles. The left shoulder was significantly more raised than the right, suggesting a tightness within the trapezius muscle. The client did feel some pain on palpation around the upper trapezius, along the neck, laterally towards the shoulder and inferiorly between the superior borders of the scapula’s, there was also a lot of tightness within the area. However, there was no pain on palpation at the shoulder.
Treatment began with effleurage to the upper trapezius fibres to help warm up the muscle and prepare for further treatment. Petrissage was then applied using techniques such as wringing and kneading. NMT’s were applied after identifying some knots along the superior border of the scapula. This helped to relieve some of the pressure in the affected area and increase ROM at the muscle. After treatment a lot of the tightness within the area had been released.
ROM can be tested before and after treatment to help identify whether the treatment has successful or if there have been any improvements within their ROM. Also, by measuring the clients ROM, this will help to provide a clear result of how the clients ROM has improved. A shoulder assessment can also be completed to test whether the client has any other underlying problems.