Clinical features of patients diagnosed with degenerative rotator cuff tendon disease: a 6-month prospective-definitive clinical study from turkey.
Tuba Tülay Koca, Aydın Arslan, Filiz Özdemir and 1 others
PMID 28878478WHAT IT FOUND
Most patients were women with an average age of 52.6 years.
Night pain and daily NSAID use were common. Women had higher pain scores and BMI; men did more repetitive shoulder work.
Key findings
01The study included 178 patients with degenerative rotator cuff tendon disease, 128 female and 50 male, with mean age 52.6 years.
02Night pain was common: 152 patients reported pain at night, 137 said pain affected sleep, and 106 used NSAIDs daily.
03Female patients had higher pain scores and BMI than male patients, and male patients were more often involved in risky work.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was done in one physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic in Turkey, so the patients may not represent other settings. The paper describes patients already diagnosed with degenerative rotator cuff tendon disease and does not report a control group, so it cannot show what causes the disease. No treatment was tested, so the results cannot show whether physical therapy, NSAIDs, injections or surgery improved pain, function or sleep. Some totals in the characteristics table are lower than 178, such as NSAID usage total 174, pain at night total 176 and MRI total 167, so not all patients are represented in those totals. Physical therapy benefit was reported for only 58 patients, not all 178. The Discussion says diabetes, thyroid disease and cardiac disease were seen more than in the healthy population, but the methods do not describe a healthy comparison group.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The supplied text does not state who funded the study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the reported physical therapy benefit figure as evidence that physical therapy works or does not work. The study did not compare physical therapy with no physical therapy, and benefit was reported for only 58 patients.