Physiotherapists in Macclesfield treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Hypermobility

We are all born with a genetically determined type of fibrous tissue, the collagen material that makes us all or most of our ligaments, tendons, skin and discs. Our collagen varies greatly in the amount of extensibility it allows due partly due to the amount of elastic material included and the length of our tissues. Normal mobility varies from stiff jointed to very mobile and individuals who show very high degrees of flexibility of their joints are termed hypermobile. Hypermobility may be asymptomatic or can cause significant pain problems in other cases. Benign hypermobility syndrome BHS is diagnosed clinically by testing the patient's joint mobility.

The diagnostic tests are: the little finger can be pulled back to 90 degrees to the hand; with the wrist bent the thumb can be pulled back to touch the forearm; the elbows extend back beyond neutral; the knees extend back beyond neutral and the person can bend over with the knees straight and place their palms on the floor. Each joint gets a score of one if positive and this gives a score out of nine. The score indicates the degree of hypermobility the patient is exhibiting and helps decide whether the joint condition is relevant.

Frozen Shoulder

Frozen shoulder is a troublesome and enigmatic condition which affects mostly middle aged people and causes significant pain and disability. As our shoulders age they become more vulnerable to injury or damage and in some cases this develops into the pain condition known as frozen shoulder. A sudden movement or small tweak of the shoulder may result in the area becoming more and more painful until the pain is very severe and interrupting sleep. This is the pain stage of frozen shoulder which is followed by the painful and stiff phase where the pain eases to some extent and the shoulder becomes restricted in movement.

Later in the process the pain recedes and the shoulder remains with just the joint stiffness so the person cannot lift their arm up far. The process may take two years or so to go through and the person may not regain their full shoulder movement. In the painful period physiotherapy is aimed at relieving the pain by gentle mobilisations and exercise and progressed to working at the joint stiffness as the pain recedes. Later physiotherapy involves stronger mobilisation techniques and stretching to ease out the strong soft tissue restrictions which have developed.