Health Central Quotes Dr. Lee: How Rheumatoid Arthritis Affects the Shoulder

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease, so you won’t experience symptoms exclusively in your shoulders (with RA, both shoulders tend to be affected). According to the Arthritis Foundation, symptoms can include:

• Deformed shoulder joints

• Fatigue

• Limited range of motion

• Low-grade fever

• Muscle weakness

• Tenderness and swelling in shoulder joints

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“Typically, shoulder pain with RA comes on very gradually, so you may only notice small losses in your range of motion or muscle stiffness instead of pain at first,” says Brian Lee, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. “You may also experience some weakness due to the involvement of tendons. When those are inflamed, it will affect your range of motion and strength overall.”