Subacromial Pain Syndrome

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Treatment

Physical Therapy

A Swedish study found good results from a 12 week exercise program for subacromial pain syndrome with a 5 year follow up. Participants were on the waitlist for surgery. They compared a group given non-specific neck and shoulder movement exercises, with a program targeting the strength of the rotator cuff and scapula stabilisers. All patients had tried conservative treatment previously, including physical therapy for many. Among the intervention group 20% ended up having surgery, compared to 63% in the control group. Other outcome measures were also higher in the intervention group.

They used a pain monitoring model. Using a scale of 0 to 10, the programme allowed pain to go up to 5 out of 10, but if the pain continued to the next morning, or increased over time, then the intensity of exercise was reduced. The programme uses eccentric exercises for the rotator cuff, and eccentric/concentric exercises for the scapular stabilisers. The exercise programme is shown in the video below. Shoulder pulleys can be purchased online for example here

• Original protocol
• Exercise Booklet

See Also

• Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy
• Subacromial Bursa Injection

Literature Review

Literature Review

Reviews from the last 7 years: review articles, free review articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, NCBI Bookshelf

Articles from all years: PubMed search, Google Scholar search.

TRIP Database: clinical publications about evidence-based medicine.

Other Wikis: Radiopaedia, Wikipedia Search, Wikipedia I Feel Lucky, Orthobullets,