Objective: To find that the patients who conducted home self-exercise in conjunction with intra-articular corticosteroid injection will have better improvement in subacromial subdeltoid (SASD) bursitis symptoms than those who received only an injection. Method: A prospective, nonrandomized, comparison study was conducted in outpatient rehabilitation clinic in a tertiary university hospital. Patients diagnosed with SASD bursitis with physical examination and ultrasound evaluation were included and received ultrasound guided injection (UGI). Patients were divided into two groups according to the compliance of self-exercise: UGI-exercise group and UGI only group. Visual analog scale (VAS) was checked before, at 3 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after the UGI. A patient's global impression of change (PGIC) survey was made at 3 months after the UGI. Results: A total of 82 patients with SASD bursitis were included. At 3 weeks after the injection, the mean VAS for the UGI-exercise group was 2.6 ± 1.7 and for UGI only group was 1.9 ± 1.3 (p=0.030). At 3 months after the injection, the mean VAS for the UGI-exercise group was 4.0 ± 1.3 and for UGI only group was 5.4 ± 1.4 (p<0.001). Conclusion: We concluded that home-based self-exercise of the shoulder provides an additional benefit for pain alleviation possibly with prolonging the effect of injection in SASD bursitis.
This work was supported by the ICT R&D program of IITP/MSIP (B0101-16-1081) and by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI16C1104).