In many instances , no or minimal attempts to screen were undertaken or reported .
Background Subacromial shoulder pain is a common clinical presentation with much diagnostic uncertainty .
Some of this uncertainty relates to the involvement of the cervical spine as a source or contribution to subacromial shoulder pain .
Currently , there is no accepted method of screening of the cervical spine in the presence of subacromial shoulder pain , which risks patients receiving misguided and /or ineffective interventions .
Objective To evaluate approaches used to screen the cervical spine in patients with subacromial shoulder pain .
[Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) as therapeutic option in supraspinatus tendon syndrome? One year results of a placebo controlled study].
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy ( ESWT ) is seen as a therapeutic option in the treatment of chronic supraspinatus tendinitis by some authors . To test whether ESWT comprising 3 x 2000 pulses with the positive energy flux density ED+ of 0.33 mJ/mm2 is clinical ly superior to a sham ESWT treatment , a prospect i ve , r and omized , single-blinded , placebo-controlled study with an independent observer was performed . Forty patients were treated either by verum ESWT or sham ESWT  under local anesthesia . Target criteria were the age-corrected Constant score , pain at rest and during activity on a visual analogue scale , and subjective improvement . Patients who reported no subjective improvement after 12 weeks were deblinded and received verum ESWT if they had belonged to the placebo group ( partial crossover ) . The results of the verum group lie within the range of results for ESWT published by other authors . Patients in the placebo group with local anesthetic showed equally good results . At 12 weeks , and 1 year after intervention , no difference could be found between the verum and placebo groups regarding Constant score , pain , shoulder function , or subjective improvement . The nonresponders to the placebo ESWT continued to show no improvement after receiving verum ESWT . This contradicts a specific ESWT effect . Based on the results of this placebo-controlled study , ESWT appears to have no clinical ly relevant effect on supraspinatus tendinitis . The study underlines the importance of a control group in evaluating new treatment methods for diseases with unknown natural history
In many instances , no or minimal attempts to screen were undertaken or reported .
Background Subacromial shoulder pain is a common clinical presentation with much diagnostic uncertainty .
Some of this uncertainty relates to the involvement of the cervical spine as a source or contribution to subacromial shoulder pain .
Currently , there is no accepted method of screening of the cervical spine in the presence of subacromial shoulder pain , which risks patients receiving misguided and /or ineffective interventions .
Objective To evaluate approaches used to screen the cervical spine in patients with subacromial shoulder pain .