Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Introduction Adhesive capsulitis, or frozen shoulder , is a painful condition which results in a severe loss of motion in the shoulder. It may follow an injury to the shoulder, but may also arise gradually with no warning or injury. The shoulder joint capsule is a loose bag of tissue that completely surrounds the shoulder joint. The joint capsule is made up of ligaments that form this water tight bag. A ligament is a soft tissue structure made up of connective tissue.
Ligaments attach bones to bones.
Inside the bag there is a small amount of joint fluid that lubricates the joint surfaces. This bag that makes up the joint capsule has a considerable amount of slack, loose tissue, so that the shoulder is unrestricted as it moves through its rather large range of motion. Causes The cause of this condition is largely a mystery. One theory is that the condition may may be due to an autoimmune reaction . During an autoimmune reaction the body's defense system that normally protects it from infection, mistakenly begins to attack parts of the body itself.