What’s going on in my shoulder?

SIRVA is thought to be an immune response to the active agents in the vaccine, which results in inflammation, excess fluid where it doesn’t belong (bursitis), and potentially (in the worst cases) even more damaging effects to the tendons and surrounding tissues. These features are often visible on MRI and ultrasound imaging, although bursitis and other tendon issues may have pre-existed before your vaccine but were previously not causing you any pain.

With the added inflammation and fluid often comes impingement, which is when certain componentss get pinched wthin he tight space of the shoulder joint. Before your SIRVA started, you probably had just the right amount of space for all the bones, tendons, nerves, etc. in your shoulder joint. Now, the fluid and the resulting inflammation take up extra space and it snowballs into the 'dysfunction'.  The capsule surrounding the shoulder joint is very often overly sore, namely the sharp pain you’re feeling on certain movements is called Capsulitis. Frozen shoulder is also sometimes an associated side effect of SIRVA, also known as Adhesive Capsulitis. This condition is easily overlooked but is reletively common now due to the uptake of emergency vaccinations in the last 2 years.

What causes SIRVA?

Many people who are trained to give the injections are unaware of the dangers (50% in one study). SIRVA can be caused by any vaccine, but it is thought that having previously received at least one dose of the same vaccine increases the risk. Injecting a vaccine too high on the shoulder will put it into the bursa space (subdeltoid or subacromial). The bursa is your shoulder's "airbag" which when injected will "inflate" as an immediate response. Just imagine the impact in a car accident, and the sudden inflation of the airbag as a way of protection for the passenger/driver in the seat.

On a physiological level, the bursa is far less vascular than the actual deltoid muscle that the injection is intended for, and the body isn’t prepared to deal with the highly “immunogenic” agents in the vaccine. Unlike your body being able to discharge the contents of the injections safely into the muscle and then widespread to the rest of the body, it leads to the undesired symptoms. The bursa's inflation response can then set off a cascade of underlying issues which before the injection were present but were happily painfree yet lying dormant. Your shoulder has experienced a localized "carcrash" unbeknownst to you the recipient as this is simply a common proceedure. Thus, greater recognition of this problem in the medical field is much needed.