J Rheumatol
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A randomized comparative study of short term response to blind injection versus sonographic-guided injection of local corticosteroids in patients with painful shoulder.
Local corticosteroid injections, commonly accepted by rheumatologists to be effective treating painful shoulder, have shown controversial results. High frequency ultrasonography is an accurate and safe imaging modality for guiding musculoskeletal injections. We prospectively compared the short term response to randomized blind injection versus sonographic-guided injection of local corticosteroid in patients with painful shoulder. ⋯ We suggest that sonographic-guided corticosteroid injections should be indicated, at least, in patients with poor response to previous blind injection to ensure accurate medication placement in order to improve therapeutic effectiveness.