Dry Needling

Thanks,Marymargaret for clearing that up and glad that you have received those benefits.

You seem very knowledgeable. Have you ever heard of a condition in the knee called synovitis oor angry knee syndrome. Which is what I was diagnosed with after 9 months of therapy and still not an adequate bend in my knee. Which changed my whole approach with my knee and me feel sooo much better.

I had a reverse shoulder replacement 18 months ago. I have severe pain in my deltoid area and have had palsy in my arm movements, ever since surgery and it has progressively gotten worse. I had an EMG and the nerves from the neck are okay, leading it to a shoulder issue. I’ve tried PT and it only made it worse. I’ve had two injections that did nothing. Last week I had an aspiration, waiting for results pro or con for infection. I’m hoping to get some relief from dry needling. My Ortho surgeon is at witts end looking for a cause and remedy. Will a MRI or a MR Neurography tells us anything? Will dry needling help? Do I have permanent damage? Should I go see a Neuro surgeon? Please, any ideas will be considered. Thank you!

I will be very interested in hearing any further news from you. I was considering dry needling. I can tell you my own experience. I do have similar problems, but unfortunately my surgeon is disinterested. I too am worried about permanent damage.
I had RSR 6 months ago. Soft tissue pain has worsened over the last 4 months. Severe pain in deltoid group became obvious since the surgical pain reduced. It was exacerbated by physio exercises, which produced a tearing feeling in the anterior aspect of deltoid group. In August a new physio agreed with me that long head biceps was damaged. All physio exercises were ceased and the damaged tissue supported or partially immobilised by adhesive strapping and arm-length compression stocking. This was greatly comforting. I was told it would take months not weeks to heal the soft tissue damage. I am still using the supports and gently starting limited exercises suitable for me.
Nevertheless, there is still the other substantial pain that appears to be centred in the actual prosthetic joint. All told, I am still in worse pain than before surgery. One of the doctors thought infection very unlikely; no indicators. Repeat scans showed no fractures.
In my own case, I had to unravel and resolve separate neck problems. I do have long term neck/nerve pain problems. Cervicogenic headache from neck trauma 40 years ago. I had my repeat occipital nerves pulsed radio frequency denervation in August, this reduced the nerve headaches. But now the trigeminal neuralgia that developed over the last 2 years has become severe since RSR and I'm trying medication to control it. It appears to be coincidental to the post-RSR pain, as is the occipital nerve pain.

@laynemcpolin I FOUND THIS on neurological complications:
Neurologic complications of shoulder joint replacement
Craig M. Ball FRACS
Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery
Volume 26, Issue 12, December 2017, Pages 2125-2132
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1058274617302537
(the article considers nerve complications post sh joint replacement, common post RSR, however suggests that permanent complications are rare)

@laynemcpolin Now on conjoint tendonopathy and the fix I FOUND THIS:
Conjoint tendon lengthening for recalcitrant anterior shoulder pain after reverse shoulder arthroplasty: a technique article
Gregory V Gomez a, G Russell Huffman b,∗
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10426463/
Good luck, keep in touch.

I had RTS IN 2019 and have been doing dry needling from about 4 months on. In my experience as uncomfortable as it is to have it , it does relieve pain by relaxing tight muscles. Also therapist uses deep tissue massage and taping
I just had another surgery in Aug 2025 where they released the conjoint tendon and decompressed my distal clavicle too (a surgery that’s only been performed over the last 4-5 years for conjoint tendonitis, a rare complication of RTS) Back in therapy. Prior to this surgery I was feeling an impingement and my arm was locking up in severe pain. Don’t feel the impingement anymore and arm is not locking up and I don’t have the kind of pain over the conjoint tendon and space at front of shoulder) Hopefully things are looking up for me. The surgeon that was doing my yearly checks not my original military surgeon who left the service sent me to civilian surgeon who diagnosed the conjoint tendonitis but had never done the new surgery so I was sent to a different military surgeon who even though he had never done the new surgery felt comfortable doing it. It’s a marathon