OSLO, Norway, Sep 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Patients with chronic shoulder
pain treated with exercises returned to work sooner than those treated with
shockwaves, researchers in Norway said.
The study involved 104 men and women ages 18-70 attending the outpatient clinic
at Ullevaal University Hospital in Oslo with shoulder pain lasting at least
three months.
The single-blind randomized study, published in the British Medical Journal,
found 64 percent of patients in the exercise group achieved a reduction in
shoulder pain and disability scores compared with 36 percent in the shockwave
treatment group.
Patients were randomized to receive either radial extracorporeal shockwave
treatment -- low to medium energy impulses delivered into the tissue for four to
six weeks -- or supervised exercises in two 45-minute weekly sessions for up to
12 weeks.
More patients in the exercise group returned to work, while more patients in the
shockwave treatment group had additional treatment after 12 weeks, suggesting
that they were less satisfied, the researchers said.
"Supervised exercises were more effective than radial extracorporeal shockwave
treatment for short-term improvement in patients with subacromial shoulder
pain," the study authors said in a statement.
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