Purpose
To conduct a prospective randomized controlled trial to assess whether arthroscopic
bursectomy and debridement of the calcific deposit, with or without subacromial decompression,
influences the functional outcome of patients with calcific tendonitis.
Methods
During a 4-year period, 80 patients were recruited who presented to the study center
with refractory calcific tendonitis of the shoulder. Forty patients were randomized
to have a subacromial decompression, and 40 were randomized not to have a subacromial
decompression in combination with bursectomy and arthroscopic removal of the calcific
deposit. All surgery was performed by one surgeon who was blinded to the functional
assessment of the patients. Patient demographics, body mass index (BMI), and length
of symptoms were recorded at the time of randomization. Patients were asked to complete
a pain visual analog score (VAS), short form (SF-12), disability arm shoulder and
hand (DASH), and Constant score (CS) preoperatively and at 1 year postoperatively.
Results
There were 21 male and 59 female patients with a mean age of 49 (range, 32 to 75)
years. The mean time of follow-up was 13 (range, 12 to 15) months. There were no significant
differences in gender, age, BMI, length of symptoms, or preoperative outcome measures
assessed between the groups. Overall, for both groups there was a significant improvement
in the pain VAS (P < .001), DASH (P < .001), and CS (P < .001) at 1 year compared with preoperative scores. There were no significant differences
demonstrated between the groups for improvement in the pain VAS (P = .57), DASH (P = .93), SF-12 physical component score (P = .58), or CS (P = .27) at 1 year.
Conclusions
This study has demonstrated that the short-term functional outcome of patients with
calcific tendonitis after arthroscopic bursectomy and debridement of the calcific
deposit is not influenced if performed in combination with or without a subacromial
decompression.
Level of Evidence
Level I therapeutic study, randomized controlled trial.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 15, 2015
Accepted:
May 29,
2015
Received:
July 9,
2014
Footnotes
The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest in the authorship and publication of this article.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
