Subacromial Injections of Low- or High-Molecular-Weight Hyaluronate Versus Physical Therapy for Shoulder Tendinopathy: A Randomized Triple-Blind Controlled Trial

Objective: Shoulder tendinopathy is a prevalent and debilitating problem. We compared the effects of subacromial high- or low-molecular-weight hyaluronate injection with physical therapy (PT) in shoulder tendinopathy. Design: A triple-blinded randomized controlled trial. Setting: We conducted the trial in an outpatient clinic at a teaching hospital. Participants: In total, 79 patients with shoulder tendinopathy were randomly allocated to high- (n = 27) or low-molecular-weight (n = 28) hyaluronate or PT (n = 24) groups. Interventions: We administered a 20-mg injection of high- or low-molecular-weight hyaluronate. For PT, we prescribed 10 sessions of physiotherapy and exercise. Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was shoulder pain and the secondary outcomes included Disability of the Arm Shoulder and Hand score, shoulder range of movement and QoL. We measured the outcomes at baseline, 1, and 3 months of treatment, and assessed shoulder pain at the sixth month postintervention. Results: The interventions were all clinically beneficial in the management of tendinopathy for high- (n = 25) and low-molecular-weight (n = 24) hyaluronate and PT (n = 19) groups (all P
Source: Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research