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Left shoulder pain
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025

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The joint of any human shoulder is the most exclusive joint of all those in the body, being such due to its structure and functional activity. Pain in the left shoulder is often caused by excessive physical exertion, fraught with inflammatory processes. Inflammatory currents, in turn, provoke the occurrence of joint effusion, local edema and even minor ruptures of the muscles and tendons covering the shoulder joint.
The working activity of the shoulder joint, which has gone out of "balance", ceases to exist after some time from the onset of the disease that has appeared, to which due attention was not paid in time and quality treatment was not applied. The failure in work turns into pain in the left shoulder for a person.
What causes pain in the left shoulder?
Pain in the upper left shoulder may radiate from the neck. The thoracic and cervical spine should be checked.
Capsulitis is one of the causes of shoulder pain. The disease is a stiffness of the muscles of the shoulder girdle, accompanied by pain syndrome. Movements of the left hand in different directions cause new attacks of pain.
Destruction of the rotator cuff, which occurs as a result of unusual hand movements (for example, when painting walls for a long time), can also be reflected by pain in the left shoulder.
Calcifications of muscle tendons have the ability to cause inflammatory processes in the bags of the shoulder joint, and inflammation, as a result, leads to tendobursitis. There is a "cutting" pain in the shoulder, shoulder movements are very limited.
If you feel pain in your shoulder when you raise your left arm, you may be talking about calcium salt deposits in the joint ligaments. The disease most often occurs in people aged 30-40-50 years.
Pain in the left shoulder can be caused by various injuries, due to genetic anatomical abnormalities, tumors. A strong fall on the arm literally "knocks" it out of the joint cavity. Of course, such an injury cannot but cause pain in the shoulder.
Often among young people there is a dislocation of the shoulder joint, acquired during a fight or playing sports. In older people, pain occurs due to the disintegration of the shoulder joint, caused by tissue wear, old age or progressive osteoporosis.
Overstretching of the shoulder ligaments is a common problem among bodybuilders. Pressing a barbell from behind the head or in a lying position, breeding hands with dumbbells (in a lying position), bringing hands together with force on a simulator - all these and similar exercises entail an impressive load on the joint and, as a rule, the occurrence of pain in the left shoulder.
Not only physical activity or salt deposits can provoke the appearance of pain in the shoulder joint. Liver diseases, chest tumors, myocardial infarction, pneumonia, angina, cervical radiculitis are accompanied by pain that can radiate to the left shoulder.
Shoulder-scapular periarthritis is also fraught with the occurrence of painful sensations in the shoulder. The pain increases gradually, it is especially felt at night, forcing a person to wake up from torment.
Among other things, pain in the left shoulder may occur with:
- calcification of the forearm;
- impingement syndrome;
- neurogenic pathology;
- tendon rupture;
- inflammatory processes in the shoulder area;
- herniation or protrusion of the intervertebral disc of the thoracic or cervical region;
- arthritis and arthrosis of the shoulder, etc.
Who should you contact if you have pain in your left shoulder?
If you experience any pain in your left shoulder, you should immediately seek help from a traumatologist.