Purpose: Calcifying tendinitis of the rotator cuff occurs in up to 20% of the population. No standard of care has been established. Our work compares the outcome of a US-guided percutaneous treatment of patients affected with calcifying tendinitis of the rotator cuff with the outcome of patients affected with the same disease treated with a simple steroid injection.
Methods and Materials: Among patients referred for US-guided treatment of calcifying tendinitis, we randomly treated 87 (39 males; age range 35-64, mean 46.1 ± 8.6) with an US-guided percutaneous treatment while 49 with a simple steroid injection (21 males; age range 30.69, mean 44.2 ± 9.6). Clinical conditions of patients and controls were assessed using Constant’s score (CS) and visual analogue score (VAS). Patients were clinically followed up to 5 years.
Results: At baseline, patients and controls were homogeneous for age (P = 0.74) and sex (P = 0.45) distribution, CS (P = 0.39) and VAS (P = 0.67). CS and VAS of treated patients resulted in significant improvement than that of injected patient at 1 month, 3 months and 1 year (P < 0.001), but were not significantly different at 5 years (P = 0.654 and P = 0.486, respectively).
Conclusion: The treated patients had a better outcome compared to the injected group in the long-term analysis. Thus, the US-guided treatment is highly effective in giving a prompt functional recovery and relief from pain. On the long term, a spontaneous healing occurs also in injected patients, but only after 5 years.