Objective: To compare the combination of corticosteroid injection and physiotherapy with physiotherapy alone in patients of frozen shoulder in terms of SPADI score.
Methods: This study included 80 patients of either gender from PMC and affiliated hospitals of Faisalabad with ages between 18-55 years having frozen shoulder of either gender with more than 1 month duration. Patients having frozen shoulder secondary to trauma, cerebrovascular accident and taking steroid injections were excluded. Combination of corticosteroid injection and physiotherapy was performed in combination therapy group (n=40) and physiotherapy alone was performed in Single therapy group (n=40).
Results: A total of 80 patients, 30(37.5%) males and 50(62.5%) females were selected for the study. Each group, combination therapy and single therapy had 40 patients each. The combination therapy group included 18(45.0%) males and 22(44.0%) females whereas the single therapy group comprised of 12(39.9%) males and 28(70%) females. The treatment method was independent of duration of disease (p= 0.251 for c2= 1.317). After six weeks of treatment, the t-test applied on SPADI score showed that combined treatment is better than the single treatment method (p= 0.016). However, both treatment methods were found same after stratification of duration of disease.
Conclusions: Combination of corticosteroid injection and physiotherapy is more effective than the physiotherapy alone in resolving the shoulder pain and disability of shoulder.
Keywords: Frozen shoulder, Cerebrovascular accident, physiotherapy, corticosteroid injection..