Case Study: Shoulder pain and limited range of movement

Case Study

The patient is a 72-year-old person (pronouns: She/Her) who came to the clinic first time on November 11th, 2021 for bilateral shoulder pain and left side limited range of movement (ROM). She was born prematurely. She had a minor head injury 4/2020, other than that she has not had any health issues. The pain started around April 2020, and got worst since then. Cold and pain made the pain worse, heat helped to ease the pain.

Nov/11th/2021

When she first came to the clinic, she was experiencing 7/10 pain reaching for her seat belt and taking off her jacket, and 5/10 discomfort when sleeping. She had pain on both sides, and the left was much worse. The ROM on the left side was limited as can be seen in the picture on the right.

Her pulses were thin and weak

Her tongue was dusky with a red tip

Kiiko Matsumoto hara reflex: ren 12, left ringside (spleen reflex)

Acupuncture Points: 

Set 1: side lying tt: L st38, L gb20, 21, li15, all the reflexes were cleared, UB 43, B ub53 on the back was added due to the premature birth as part of Kiiko’s missing organ treatment points,

Set 2: after 20 minutes, she reported that pain was much less but she still had limited range of movement on the left. Cross fiber massage technique was used with gua sha on the left shoulder, and 15 minutes e-stim was applied on L li15 area and sj15.

Nov/18th/2021

After the first treatment, patient reported that the pain did not wake her up anymore

but still left side ROM was limited. She also had post nasal drip.

Her pulses were thin, she had ren 12 reflex.

Acupuncture Points: 

Set 1: gua sha front and back of the shoulder joint, supraspinatus, infraspinatus muscle , biceps brachia tendon attachment to the shoulder

Set 2: L ub43, ub13, L gb21, li15, si10

Patient received 5 more treatments on November 18th, 20th, November 24th, Treatments involved first clearing the reflexes based on Kiiko Matsumoto style and then based on the results of the manual testing, gua sha or cupping were added. Her pain reduced significantly and the ROM had improved. She went out of country for 3 months. After coming back at the end of February, she had acupuncture on Feb. 24th, March 18th.

On March 18th, in addition to previous treatment styles, 15 rice grain moxa was added on left li15.

April/7th/2022

Patient reported much relief overall, she felt the benefit of moxa on her shoulder, she could use the seat belt with minimum discomfort, she could reach her arm to the back.

Pulses were thin and slightly wiry. Left Li15 was sore on palpation.

Acupuncture Points: 

Set 1: B ub62, gb29, gb20

Set 2: B ub2, B li15

rice grain moxa B si10 and L li15

January/12th 2023

Patient came back to the clinic after a long break for sciatica, her shoulder pain completely resolved, she was happy to report that the regained full ROM on her left shoulder. (the picture can be seen on the right).

If you have any questions about the case study or Kiiko Matsumoto style for shoulder pain please contact us at info@felekacupuncture.com.

before & after