One-year outcome of subacromial corticosteroid injection compared with manual physical therapy for the management of the unilateral shoulder impingement syndrome: a pragmatic randomized trial.

Corticosteroid injections (CSIs) and physical therapy are used to treat patients with the shoulder impingement syndrome (SIS) but have never been directly compared. To compare the effectiveness of 2 common nonsurgical treatments for SIS. Randomized, single-blind, comparative-effectiveness, parallel-group trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01190891). Military hospital-based outpatient clinic in the United States. 104 patients aged 18 to 65 years with unilateral SIS between June 2010 and March 2012. Random assignment into 2 groups: 40-mg triamcinolone acetonide subacromial CSI versus 6 sessions of manual physical therapy. The primary outcome was change in Shoulder Pain and Disability Index scores at 1 year. Secondary outcomes included the Global Rating of Change scores, the Numeric Pain Rating Scale scores, and 1-year health care use. Both groups demonstrated approximately 50% improvement in Shoulder Pain and Disability Index scores maintained through 1 year; however, the mean difference between groups was not significant (1.5% [95% CI, -6.3% to 9.4%]). Both groups showed improvements in Global Rating of Change scale and pain rating scores, but between-group differences in scores for the Global Rating of Change scale (0 [CI, -2 to 1]) and pain rating (0.4 [CI, -0.5 to 1.2]) were not significant. During the 1-year follow-up, patients receiving CSI had more SIS-related visits to their primary care provider (60% vs. 37%) and required additional steroid injections (38% vs. 20%), and 19% needed physical therapy. Transient pain from the CSI was the only adverse event reported. The study occurred at 1 center with patients referred to physical therapy. Both groups experienced significant improvement. The manual physical therapy group used less 1-year SIS-related health care resources than the CSI group. Cardon Rehabilitation Products through the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists.