Efficacy of standardised manual therapy and home exercise programme for chronic rotator cuff disease: randomised placebo controlled trial

Kim L Bennell, Elin Wee, Sally Coburn, Sally Elizabeth Green, Anthony H Harris, Margaret Staples, Andrew Benjamin Forbes, Rachelle Buchbinder

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

159 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of a programme of manual therapy and exercise treatment compared with placebo treatment delivered by physiotherapists for people with chronic rotator cuff disease. DESIGN: Randomised, participant and single assessor blinded, placebo controlled trial. SETTING: Metropolitan region of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: 120 participants with chronic (>3 months) rotator cuff disease recruited through medical practitioners and from the community. INTERVENTIONS: The active treatment comprised a manual therapy and home exercise programme; the placebo treatment comprised inactive ultrasound therapy and application of an inert gel. Participants in both groups received 10 sessions of individual standardised treatment over 10 weeks. For the following 12 weeks, the active group continued the home exercise programme and the placebo group received no treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcomes were pain and function measured by the shoulder pain and disability index, average pain on movement measured on an 11 point numerical rating scale, and participants perceived global rating of overall change.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1 - 10
Number of pages10
JournalBMJ
Volume340
Issue numberc2756
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

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