Exercise Program in Patients With Shoulder Pain and Rotator Cuff Tear

Summary

Introduction: Atraumatic and degenerative rotator cuff tears are common in individuals over 55 years of age. This condition can have a high impact on social life and is associated with chronic pain, weakness and dysfunction of the upper limb. There is evidence that conservative approaches should be the first treatment option. Conservative treatment usually addresses a variety of therapeutic behaviors without providing scientific arguments for the choice and progression of exercises. At that, there is a gap in the literature on the best exercises for this population, whether they are exercises to strengthen the remaining fibers of the rotator cuff or exercises focused on strengthening other shoulder muscles with rotator cuff unload exercise program. Objective: To compare the effects of two different exercise programs based on the load of the rotator cuff on a population with shoulder pain and rotator cuff tear. Methods: This is a controlled, randomized, blinded clinical trial. In this study 78 individuals with shoulder pain and presence of atraumatic rupture of the rotator cuff muscle tendon will participate and will be randomly distributed between two groups. The primary outcome will be quality of life (WORC index), and secondary outcomes will include pain, function (DASH), fear avoidance beliefs (FABQ-Brazil), kinesiophobia (Tampa Scale), pain catastrophizing scale, muscle strength of abductors, lateral and medial rotators of the shoulder, range of motion of arm elevation and patient satisfaction. All outcomes will be measured before and after 12 weeks of treatment (2x/week), and 1 month after the end of treatment. The normality of the data will be verified by the Kolmogorov Smirnov test. The differences between the groups will be verified using the mixed linear models with the terms of interaction versus time. The effect size will be calculated for the variables between the groups. The level of significance will be 5%.

Conditions

• Shoulder Pain
• Rotator Cuff Injuries
• Rehabilitation

Interventions

OTHER

Rotator Cuff Unloading Exercise Program

Patients in this group will perform semi-closed kinetic chain elevation exercises, deltoid reeducation exercises, assisted arm elevation and scapular control exercises.

OTHER

Rotator Cuff Loading Exercise Program

Patients in this group will perform conventional exercises focusing on lateral rotation, medial rotation and arm elevation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Larissa Pechincha Ribeiro

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Larissa P Ribeiro, MD · Department of Physical Therapy - Universidade Federal de São Carlos

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-08-05

Primary Completion

2023-01-31

Completion

2023-01-31

Countries

• Brazil

Study Locations