A shoulder dislocation occurs when the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) pops out of the shallow shoulder socket of the scapula (called the glenoid). This can happen when a strong force pulls the shoulder upward or outward, or from an extreme external rotation of the humerus. Dislocation can be full or partial:

The shoulder is a pretty resilient part of the body⎯until it’s hit with strong force or a direct blow. Then it can break one or more of these areas: glenoid (shallow cavity), scapula (shoulder blade) and humerus (upper arm bone). A fracture of the head of the humerus – the “ball” of the shoulder’s ball-and-socket.

This is a painful pinching of soft tissues in your shoulder. It happens when these tissues rub and press against a part of your shoulder blade called the “acromion.” This can irritate your rotator cuff tendons, and also a soft sac called the “subacromial bursa. Rowers, swimmers and weight lifters are especially prone to this condition, also known as rotator cuff tendonitis.

Throwing a ball, picking up your child, reaching to grab your dinner plate – all of these activities involve your shoulder, which is one of the most mobile and freely moving joints of the body.

There’s actually more than one joint involved in making up your shoulder, and they all work together to give you the ability to flex, extend, rotate, and move your arm in all sorts of directions. However, if one of the components of the joint(s) becomes irritated or injured, it can lead to shoulder pain.

It’s important to remember that there are many different structures involved in making up your joints. There are, of course, bones that connect to one another via soft tissues like ligaments. There is typically cartilage that either lines the bones themselves or lines the inside of the joint (sometimes called the labrum). Muscles and tendons also help to provide support and structure to your joints, and bursa, which are fluid-filled sacs around the joints, allow for smooth movements and cushioning. Because there is so much involved in joints, there are many potential causes of shoulder pain.

This is an injury of the acromioclavicular joint(commonly called the “AC” joint). This is the joint where the clavicle meets the scapula. A shoulder separation is a stretching or a tearing of the ligaments that support these bones. This allows the bones to move out of position.

This is a problem with the head of the femur ingrowing children. With this condition, the ball-like head slips out of place in the hip socket. It moves down and back. This slip happens at the femur’s neck, along a growth plate. That’s where new bone develops. Growth plates are weaker than the surrounding bone.

Hearing or feeling a “snap” or “pop” in the hip during movement such as walking, standing up from a sitting position or swinging the leg around is a telltale sign of this condition. More annoying than painful, keep reading to learn more about diagnosis and treatment.

Spinal deformity is a broad term that encompasses a variety of diagnoses related to abnormalities in the shape or curvature of the spine. These curvature disorders are classified as scoliosis, lordosis, or kyphosis, depending on their specific shape, location, and direction.

This is an infection most often caused by staphylococcus or E. coli bacteria. It may involve the bones, discs and soft tissues of your spine. It can start in one area of your spine and spread to other parts. It can cause pain and other problems.

This genetic disease attacks the motor neurons in the spinal cord, causing weakness and wasting of the voluntary muscles. Although it usually manifests itself in infants and toddlers, adults with milder forms may be asymptomatic until later in life. Keep reading to learn more.

This condition is a degeneration of the spine that can affect the spine at any level, resulting in pain and discomfort that can grow worse over time.

The spine is designed to be strong, especially because it gets support from surrounding structures, like ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It works to be stable – to keep you upright, like when you’re standing in a long line, but it also allows for flexibility to help you move freely, like when you have to reach far in front of you or when you need to quickly check your blind spot while driving.

The spine houses your spinal cord, which is a main line of communication between your brain and your body. Nerves branch off of the spinal cord, and they can go anywhere from your hands
to your feet, and many places in between.

When one of those nerves, often coming from the neck or the lower back, gets irritated or compressed, that can lead to pain and other symptoms. In the event that this happens along a nerve root, it’s often called “radiculopathy”. You may also hear it referred to as a “pinched nerve” – a pinched nerve can happen at the nerve root or somewhere else along a nerve.

Your spinal nerves travel through your spinal canal and exit through openings we call “foramen.” If any of these spaces are too narrow, your nerves become compressed. We say you have “spinal stenosis.” It’s a problem that most often happens in the neck and lower back

When teen or adolescent athletes complain of low back pain, the culprit could be a tiny crack or stress fracture in one of the vertebrae. This condition, called spondylolysis, generally improves with rest, rehabilitation and return to activity. Keep reading to learn more.

While a fairly uncommon injury, when it does occur, about 50 percent result from motor vehicle accidents. The sternoclavicular joint (SCJ) is the joint that connects the collarbone and breastbone. Keep reading to see who’s most at risk for this disorder and how it’s treated.

Stress fractures are one or more tiny cracks in a bone. These fractures are common in the legs and feet. That’s because your legs and feet have to support your weight and absorb the forces of walking, running and jumping.

This is a shoulder injury. It’s a tear of the labrum. That’s a ring of cartilage that surrounds the shoulder socket and helps hold the head of the humerus in place. This type of tear happens where the biceps tendon attaches to the labrum.

As part of its anatomy, the hip joint has a lubricating membrane called the synovium. It helps the hip joints glide easily and supplies nutrients to cartilage. When irritated, however, the joint lining causes a painful condition called synovitis. Read on for more.

When the nerves inside the pathway along the inner leg behind the inside ankle bone are compressed, the result if a very painful condition called tarsal tunnel syndrome. Keep reading to learn more.

What is Tendinitis

Tendinitis is inflammation of a tendon – a thick cord that attaches muscle to bone. Tendons act as pulleys to help muscles move a joint. Tendinitis commonly affects the shoulders, biceps, hands, wrists, thumbs and calves

More plumbers, painters and carpenters develop this condition than actual tennis players. Regardless, this condition, commonly called tennis elbow, is an inflammation of the tendons that connect the muscles of the forearm to the elbow. The pain is primarily felt at the lateral epicondyle, the bony bump on the outer side of the elbow.

The elbow joint is a complex group of bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons. Lateral epicondylitis involves the extensor muscles, which control the extension of the wrist and fingers, and the extensor tendons, which anchor the muscles to the lateral epicondyle.

Throwing overhand again and again puts a lot of stress on your elbow. It can lead to injury. Young athletes, in particular, are at risk. Some play sports all year without learning how to throw properly. And, their bones are still growing. Let’s look at how the elbow can be damaged.

This is a break of the shinbone. That’s the larger of the two bones in the lower leg. Tibias are strong bones that support most of your body’s weight.

Like biceps tendon rupture, this condition is a sudden, painful detachment of the tendon⎯only this time at the back of the elbow. It usually happens when the elbow is forcefully bent during a pushing motion or activity. Learn more about when and how triceps tendons are repaired.

Forceful flexion of the fingers causes stress at the A1 pulley and can lead to bunching of the fibers within one of the tendons. The tendon can swell and thicken, forming a bump called a nodule. The pulley also thickens and narrows, and the swollen tendon or nodule has trouble passing through the narrowed pulley during attempts to extend the finger from a flexed position.

Unusual yet descriptive, turf toe was so named for its high incidence among artificial turf-playing athletes. Essentially it is a hyperextension of the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint. Read on for more.

Like other joints, the elbow is held together by strong bands of tissue called “ligaments.” On the elbow’s inner side is the ulnar collateral ligament complex. We call it the “UCL.” It’s made of three bands that connect the humerus (the upper arm bone) to the lower arm’s ulna. The UCL is the elbow ligament most often injured by baseball pitchers and by other athletes who play throwing sports.

Vertebrogenic pain is a specific form of chronic low back pain resulting from damage to the vertebral endplates, which are the interface between the disc and the vertebral body. Patients often describe it as a deep, burning or aching pain in the middle of their lower back.

Although people may joke about this condition in response to a mild injury, whiplash is a real, common condition.  It happens when your neck jerks back and forth quickly and violently. Your spine bends past its normal range of motion. This can injure the vertebrae of your cervical spine. It can damage the supporting ligaments and muscles in your neck.

A broken wrist is a pretty common injury and accounts for plenty of emergency room visits. Treatment depends on the severity of the break, as well as which of the three wrist bones (radius, scaphoid, ulna) is broken. Keep reading to learn more.