Israr Ahmad, Zahid Askar, Zaffar Durrani, Mohammad Idrees, Mohammad Ayaz, Awal Hakim, Umer Zia, Abdus Samad.
Intraarticular injection of methylprednisolone for idiopathic frozen shoulder.
J Med Sci Jan ;17(1):16-8.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of intra-articular methylprednisolone injection in the treatment of idiopathic frozen shoulder. Material and Methods: This study was conducted at the Department of Orthopaedics Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar from June 2004 to May 2006. Patients, with clinical diagnosis of idiopathic adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder joints were included in the study and a uniform protocol of treatment was adopted. After complete clinical evaluation, patients were injected with 80mg of Methylprednisolone. All patients were given instructions for active range of motion exercises of the shoulder. These patients were followed at six weeks and twelve weeks. At every followup they were assessed for improvement in pain using visual analogue scale (VAS) and for range of motion. Patients with little improvment at six weeks were given another injection. The outcome measures were compared. The Statistical significance was found using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. Results: Total number of patients was 60 with average age of 48 years (range 38-70). Among these 34 were male and 26 were female. Eighteen (30%) patients had diabetes mellitus. Fifty patients (83.33%) received one injection and the remaining 10 a second injection of methylprednisolone. The average pain score on Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was 7.5 at the beginning of treatment which improved to 3 at the end of follow up. The range of motion similarly improved; abduction from 60o to 95o (average gain 35o) and internal rotation from 20o to 40o (average gain 20o). Conclusion: Intra-articular steroid injection is an effective method of treating adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder).

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