Extracorporeal shock wave treatment for shoulder calcific tendonitis: a systematic review

The treatment of patients with calcific tendonitis is typically conservative, including physical therapy, iontophoresis, deep friction, local or systemic application of noninflammatory drugs, needle irrigation-aspiration of calcium deposit, and subacromial bursal steroid injection. If the pain becomes chronic or intermittent after several months of conservative treatment, arthroscopic and open procedures are available to curette the calcium deposit, and additional subacromial decompression can be performed if necessary. As an alternative, minimally invasive extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been postulated to be an effective treatment option for treating calcific tendinitis of the shoulder, before surgery. Herein we discuss the indications, mechanism of therapeutic effect, efficacy of treatment, and complications after ESWT application.