Impingement

Hi Everyone, this is a very late post sorry

I've been having difficulty thinking of things to add so I thought I'd add something useful I learnt. When classifying shoulder impingments, (primary or secondary) most of us kept getting it wrong when confirming it with the clinical tutor before treating the patient. Initially we thought primary impingment was due to the structure of the acromium process compromising the subacromium space i.e. osteophyte or congenital bony formation. Rather, a primary impingment is any pathology that is compromises the subacroumium space which includes inflammation from the bursa, or torn supraspinatus etc as well as the bony formations. Secondary impingment is due to an impairment in thiei motor control of the GHJ e.g. weak supraspinatus or external rotators etc.

So for instance, a person with a torn supraspinatus tendon would be both primary and secondary shoudler impingment as there is swelling from the tear and poor motor control due to pain/weakness.

Seeing as though most of us had thought the other classification, it appeared that it wasn't very well explained when taught the shoulder. Just thought this may be useful for those who weren't as sure as I was.