The Clinical Results of Conservative Treatment of Frozen Shoulder Using Continuous Passive Motion

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to administer conservative treatment in 30 patients diagnosed with idiopathic frozen shoulder, following the suggested frozen shoulder rehabilitation program and to assess the clinical outcome using a prospective study. METHODS: Thirty patients diagnosed with idiopathic frozen shoulder, treated with steroid hormone injection on the articular joint with an intra-articular steroid (triamcinolone 40 mg + lidocaine 4 ml) injection and started on stepwise shoulder extension exercise were chosen. The subjects were divided into two groups of 15 people each with one group undergoing rehabilitation with continuous passive motion (CPM) and the other group without it. Follow-ups were done before rehabilitation and at 4-week intervals with the 24th being the final week. At every follow-up, passive range of motion (ROM) was measured and surveys on pain and clinical score were administered. RESULTS: In the last follow-up, both groups showed statistically significant improvements in all evaluation criteria. However, no statistical difference in all values of the ROM and Constant score evaluation criteria was observed between the groups. Only in the last follow-up, group 1 had a visual analog scale (VAS) score of 2.4 +/- 2.1 points, which was lower, with statistical significance, than the VAS score of group 2, which was 4.4 +/- 3.1 points (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Study using CPM in treatment of frozen shoulder has been inadequate, meaning that there is still room for improvement and need for more study on setting a more specific protocol and guidelines for this procedure.