Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart

What is a Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart?

Pain mapping of musculoskeletal complaints such as hip, back, or knee pain can help to diagnose the problem and inform therapeutic decisions. Allowing patients to mark on a visual diagram where they feel pain and what type of pain they feel improves communication without requiring anatomical terminology. Since many disorders have characteristic patterns of pain localization, pain mapping can also help practitioners to narrow down their diagnoses.

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Your shoulder may be in pain due to having a frozen shoulder, or a dislocated shoulder. A frozen shoulder means there is stiffness in the shoulder area, which can cause reduced mobility. On the other hand, a dislocated shoulder means the upper bones come out of the shoulder socket which can cause immediate and immense pain. Front shoulder pain may be caused from SLAP tears, rotator cuff tears, biceps tendonitis, and/or a clavicle injury. On the other hand, back shoulder pain may be caused by muscle strain, poor posture, T4 syndrome, nerve pain, shoulder bursitis, heart attack, and/or arthritis.

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Our is a pre-formatted tool designed to help you or your patients map out their pain. This tool is flexible enough to be used for left, right, or bilateral shoulder pain and allows for differentiation between four different types of pain. While the visual component of this chart is intuitive, to get a thorough understanding of how to utilize this resource best- just keep reading!

Red Flags of Shoulder Pain

When it comes to shoulder pain, here are some red flags that you shouldn't ignore.

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• Pain
• Shoulder and arm weakness
• Inabiltiy to raise arm
• Shoulder swelling
• Red skin
• Painful joints
• Fever

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How does this Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart work?

While we’ve aimed to keep this chart simple and widely applicable for patients experiencing all kinds of shoulder pain, we have also packed in some handy features for customizability- which we’ll run through now. 

Add Patient Details

Firstly, the interactive PDF shoulder pain diagnosis chart includes several pre-formatted fields for your patient’s details. These include their name, identifier and date of birth. 

Add in Color/Marker Coding (optional)

Depending on what kind of pain your patient is experiencing, you may wish to utilize the blank key provided. This key provides four empty boxes for color coding or otherwise differentiating between different types of pain. To see an example of how to use this key with colors or different markers, just take a look at our example shoulder pain diagnosis chart.

Annotate Diagram(s)

Once you have determined your colors or markers to annotate different types of pain, you can start mapping your patient's pain on the diagram. Your patient can also complete this part of the chart if they feel confident to do so, which may provide a more accurate representation of their pain. 

Fill in Practitioner Details

At the bottom of the shoulder pain diagnosis chart is space to add your details, designation, and signature. 

Store securely

The last step is storing the resource securely as part of your patient’s clinical record. We recommend doing this digitally rather than as a paper copy to improve accessibility and utilize digital encryption, and you can do this seamlessly from within the Carepatron app. Feel free to skip to the end of this article to find out how!

Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart example (sample)

If you’re more of a visual learner or just prefer to see a finished example of a tool before you start using it yourself, look no further than our example shoulder pain diagnosis chart. This sample chart demonstrates the capability of this resource to map different types of pain, as well as the interactive PDF functionality when used as a digital resource. Take a look at the example below, or you can download the example chart or a blank version using the free PDF links provided. 

Download this Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart Example (Sample) here:

When to use a Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart PDF?

A shoulder pain diagnosis chart will likely be useful upon admission or initial assessment of a patient presenting with shoulder pain. That being said, this chart can also serve as a progress monitoring tool to visually represent changes in your patient’s pain over time. This chart should always be completed in collaboration with your patient, as their input is required for which regions of their shoulder hurt. As such, completing this shoulder pain diagnosis chart during appointments or sessions with your patient is a good way to go.

Who is this Printable Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart for?

Although knowledge of common shoulder pathologies and anatomical terminology is required to interpret the results of the shoulder pain diagnosis chart, these are not a requirement for drawing in areas of pain on a 2D upper limb and shoulder diagram. 

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As such, this chart can be completed independently by patients. However, a healthcare practitioner will be required to interpret the results and determine the best cause of action for the patient's situation.

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Some of these practitioners might include:

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• Physiotherapists
• Physical therapists
• Occupational therapists
• General practitioners
• Orthopedic surgeons or nurses
• Sports medicine physicians

Benefits of this Free Shoulder Pain Location Chart

Make patients feel heard

Allowing patients to fill in or directly inform their shoulder pain location chart helps to engage them in their treatment. This then helps to improve communication between practitioner and patient, as they are more likely to be understood when they can directly contribute to their shoulder pain chart. 

Track progress

This shoulder pain location chart can be completed multiple times throughout a patient’s treatment to track their progress in pain. This can be a great way to show your patients the benefits of their treatment and catch any additional issues early. 

Visual resource

Another benefit of this resource is that it is predominantly visual. These visual pain maps can then be compared to known pain maps of common shoulder conditions to narrow down potential diagnoses.

Improve communication

Having a visual resource like our shoulder pain diagnosis chart makes it easy to communicate with other members of your patient’s care team and quickly communicate their pain- however complex, in an easily understandable way.

Complete digitally

Finally, this shoulder pain diagnosis chart can be completed, shared, and stored entirely digitally. This is a huge benefit as it allows for the use of digital encryption, as well as improving the accessibility of the resource. 

Why use this Shoulder Pain Diagnosis Chart in Carepatron?

If you’re looking for a way to get on top of your practice’s administration work and shift to working digitally, look no further than Carepatron.

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As well as developing interactive resources for practitioners from dentistry to physiotherapy, Carepatron offers state-of-the-art practice management software to save you and your staff time.

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Physical therapists can create, store, and access your patient’s assessments, intake forms and progress notes. Utilize Carepatron’s digital encryption to ensure your patient’s confidential information is safe and ensure you can access these documents whenever you need them with Carepatron’s mobile or desktop platforms.

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Carepatron also offers smart digital solutions to take your practice to the next level with automated billing and appointment reminders or AI-powered dictation software.

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And best of all, you can start using Carepatron’s starter plan for free, so why not try it out today and find out why 10,000+ passionate healthcare practitioners have chosen Carepatron.

References

Bayam L, Ahmad MA, Naqui SZ, Chouhan A, Funk L. Pain mapping for common shoulder disorders. Am J Orthop (Belle Mead NJ). 2011 Jul;40(7):353-8.