What Does a Dislocated Shoulder Look Like?

What does a dislocated shoulder look like? The most common dislocation is the anterior. You’ll see someone holding the arm down, and you’ll see the deformity of the shoulder. 

It’s kind of down in the front, and they’ll have a ton of difficulty reaching behind, like internally rotating, because of where it’s at. They won’t be able to go back. You can rotate it to the back, and that’s how you get it fixed. There’s a rotation up to the shoulder level and backward, then you push it down, or you can do traction. 

I used to put people on their stomachs, inject them with a bunch of local anesthetics, and then manipulate their shoulder blades interestingly with a little bit of traction. Taking their shoulder blade and shifting it medially is the most gentle way to get the shoulder back in. 

That was my go-to in the ER when I was a resident. But you could tell they’re just holding it the way they are; they have their arms, and they don’t want to move it.