Effectiveness of intra-articular corticosteroid injection in the treatment of idiopathic frozen shoulder

ABSTRACT

To determine the efficacy of intra-articular corticosteroids in the treatment of idiopathic frozen shoulder. Quasi experimental. Department of Orthopedics Surgery Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar, from February 2010 to October 2010. In this study, 113 cases of idiopathic frozen shoulder were selected by non-probability consecutive sampling technique at the outpatient department. Patients received a single intra-articular injection of corticosteroid [methylprednisolone] followed by physiotherapy for four weeks. Shoulder pain and disability index [SPADI] was used as main outcome measure of pain relief and disability. Mean age of the patients was 49 +/- 9.3 year. Using SPADI, the mean baseline pain and disability scores were 81 +/- 7.2 and 79.5 +/- 7.6 respectively which significantly improved to 14.5 +/- 7.4 and 25.6 +/- 18.2 at 4th week of intra-articular injection in the affected glenohumeral joint with p value of 0.000 and 0.040 respectively. Intra-articular steroid injection is an effective and reliable modality of treatment for relieving pain and decreasing disability in idiopathic frozen shoulder.