Extracorporeal shock wave therapy in chronic calcific tendonitis of the shoulder--is it effective?

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy has been claimed to be an effective non-invasive treatment for chronic calcific tendonitis of the supraspinatus tendon. However many trials have been criticised for not achieving necessary scientific standards. We report a prospective, single blinded, randomised control trial of 20 patients, which looked into effectiveness of the therapy. Subjectively, 45% of the treated patients were satisfied with the outcome and also had objectively increased their Constant score by 11% at 6 months. The control group experienced no subjective or objective improvement with p value < 0.03. This study confirms that extracorporeal shock wave therapy is effective in treating chronic calcific tendonitis when compared with a placebo group. However in our experience it is not as successful as previously claimed, with half the patients failing to achieve a satisfactory out come and requiring surgical excision. Patients found the procedure painful, which has not been previously alluded to.