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 .
Effects of low-level laser therapy in combination with physiotherapy in the management of rotator cuff tendinitis
Rotator cuff tendinitis is one of the main causes of shoulder pain . The objective of this study was to evaluate the possible additive effects of low-power laser treatment in combination with conventional physiotherapy endeavors in these patients . A total of 50 patients who were referred to the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic with shoulder pain and rotator cuff disorders were selected .  Pain severity measured with visual analogue scale ( VAS ) , abduction , and external rotation range of motion in shoulder joint was measured by goniometry , and evaluation of daily functional abilities of patients was measured by shoulder disability question naire . Twenty-five of the above patients were r and omly assigned into the control group and received only routine physiotherapy . The other 25 patients were assigned into the experimental group and received conventional therapy plus low-level laser therapy ( 4 J/cm2 at each point over a maximum of ten painful points of shoulder region for total 5 min duration ) . The above measurements were assessed at the end of the third week of therapy in each group and the results were analyzed statistically . In both groups , statistically significant improvement was detected in all outcome measures compared to baseline ( p < 0.05 ) . Comparison between two different groups revealed better results for control of pain ( reduction in VAS average ) and shoulder disability problems in the experimental group versus the control ( 3.1 ± 2.2 vs. 5 ± 2.6 , p = 0.029 and 4.4 ± 3.1 vs. 8.5 ± 5.1 , p = 0.031 , respectively ) after intervention . Positive objective signs also had better results in the experimental group , but the mean range of active abduction ( 144.92 ± 31.6 vs. 132.80 ± 31.3 ) and external rotation ( 78.0 ± 19.5 vs. 76.3 ± 19.1 ) had no significant difference between the two groups ( p = 0.20 and 0.77 , respectively ) . As one of physical modalities , gallium-arsenide low-power laser combined with conventional physiotherapy has superiority over routine physiotherapy from the view of decreasing pain and improving the patient ’s function , but no additional advantages were detected in increasing shoulder joint range of motion in comparison to other physical agents
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 .