Radial extracorporeal shock-wave therapy in rotator cuff calcific tendinosis

The objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Radial Extracorporeal Shock-wave Therapy (RESWT) compared with High Power LASER Therapy (HPLT) for the treatment of patients with Rotator Cuff Calcific Tendinosis (RCCT). RCCT is widely diffused, it is painful and invalidating. It is an important public health problem with social and economic implications. The most common therapeutic approach is a physiotherapic one. Both HPLT and RESWT give positive results. There is a debate on which is to be preferred. Therefore there is need to obtain scientific evidence to support either case. An observational study was carried out in the period between October 2008 and September 2009 in our outpatient clinic with 62 patients, divided into 3 groups: group A 36 patients treated only with RESWT, group B 26 patients treated only with HPLT and group C 16 patients with only short term improvement with HPLT retreated with RESWT. Patients were evaluated with Constant-Murley scale before and after treatment (immediately, 1 month and 3 months) for mean constant score, pain and range of movement. Data were examined statistically with SPSS. Criteria for inclusion and exclusion were defined. Patients treated with HPLT have shown good clinical results but have returned to original syndrome 1 month after treatment. RESWT has given improvement after treatment extended in time (3 months) in terms of pain and recover of functionality with a limited number of applications. The evidence collected indicates that RESWT is the method of choice.