A study of painful shoulder in welders.

By means of clinical examination, soft tissue radiography and quantitative electromyography, the effect of heavy industrial work was evaluated on welders at a shipyard. The study revealed that the older workers with shoulder pain have a chronic tendinitis of the rotator cuff. The supraspinatus muscle was shown to be consistently fatigued during overhead welding. It is believed that this is an important factor in the aetiology of the shoulder pain commonly occurring in older welders.