Manipulation under local anesthesia in idiopathic frozen shoulder--a new effective and simple technique

Manipulation under anesthesia has been used to speed up the recovery of frozen shoulder (FS), which is said to be a self-limiting disease. This is a randomized prospective clinical trial performed in a tertiary care hospital. Thirty-one patients with idiopathic unilateral frozen shoulder underwent suprascapular nerve block and intraarticular local anesthesia with Methyl prednisolone acetate followed by manipulation of the glenohumeral joint. Differences in range of motion and pain were assessed before manipulation and at 7 days 6 weeks and 12 weeks. Passive range of motion increased significantly for abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation. Significant decrease in visual analogue pain (VAS) scores between initial and follow-up assessments was observed. Our results revealed that manipulation under suprascapular nerve block and intra-articular local anesthesia is a very simple, safe, cost effective and minimally invasive procedure for shortening the course of an apparently self-limiting disease and can improve shoulder function and symptoms quickly.