Abstract :
The shoulder-hand syndrome is described by many authors as a sequela of myocardial infarction, hemiplegia and cancer of the lungs.
The syndrome evolves in a form that resembles the post-traumatic algodystrophies. Pain, stiffness, and tenderness of the shoulder with limited movement, indistinguishable from capsulitis, are usually the first symptoms, and these sometimes progress to swelling, pain, stiffness and discoloration of the hand fingers.
The mechanisms of the syndrome probably involve the central nervous system rostrally to the spinal cord as the syndrome is never seen in tetraplegic patients. Damaged afferents may activate sympathetic efferents to well-defined areas.
The fact that the elbow is not involved may be only apparent. In fact, the other diseases such as tennis elbow, pain of the hand is very often accompanied by latent myofascial trigger points of the elbow, observed by the author also in the shoulder-hand syndrome.
