Most patients who receive physiotherapy after surgery experience that pain is reduced by a half within a few months. Most of them are free of pain after one to two years. This is the conclusion of a thesis presented at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
“Age-related changes in tissue combined with acute trauma can contribute to shoulder problems. The most common cause of such problems, however, is compression of the tendons in the shoulder due to a reduction in the space available”, says Ingrid Hultenheim Klintberg, physiotherapist and researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology.
Patients with these symptoms should initially be treated by physiotherapy. Those for whom physiotherapy does not have an adequate effect are offered surgical treatment, in which the space available is enlarged and the tendons repaired, if necessary. The two most common procedures are known as arthroscopic subacromial decompression and rotator cuff repair.