Self-managed loaded exercise versus usual physiotherapy treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy: a pilot randomised controlled trial.
Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy (RCT) is a common source of shoulder pain characterised by persistent and/or recurrent problems for a proportion of sufferers. The aim of this study was to pilot the methods proposed to conduct a substantive study to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-managed loaded exercise programme versus usual physiotherapy treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy.
A single-centre pragmatic unblinded parallel group pilot randomised controlled trial was conducted on 24 participants with RCT. The intervention was a programme of self-managed loaded exercise. The control group received usual physiotherapy treatment. Baseline assessment comprised the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) and the Short-Form 36, repeated three months post randomisation. 100% retention was attained with all participants completing the SPADI at three months. Exercise adherence rates were excellent (90%).
The mean change in SPADI score was −23.7 points for the self-managed exercise group and −19.0 points for the usual physiotherapy treatment group. The difference in three-month SPADI scores was 0.1 (95% CI −16.6 to 16.9) points in favour of the usual physiotherapy treatment group.
In keeping with previous research, which indicates the need for further evaluation of self-managed loaded exercise for RCT, these methods and the preliminary evaluation of outcome offer a foundation and stimulus to conduct a substantive study > From: Littlewood et al., Physiotherapy (2013) (Epub ahead of print). All rights reserved to Elsevier Ltd.
The Pubmed summary of the article can be found here.
Dowload the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI).
