The Study of Different Treatment Programs for Patients With Frozen Shoulder

(A) Diagnosis: Patients with shoulder pain onset within 6 months are included in our study to evaluate shoulder range of motion (ROM) in flexion, external rotation,abduction and internal rotation by goniometer(9).Restriction in ROM is noted.Cases with possible diagnosis of frozen shoulder is arranged to receive shoulder arthrography(10,11,12)which is performed by the administration of contrast media(2ml) into joint space,followed by injection of air.Injection is discontinued when resistance is felt.The joint space capacity is defined as the total volume of contrast media and air that could be injected without resistance.All procedures are conducted by the same well experienced radiologist to keep measurement reproducible.The arthrographic findings should met at least two of the following criteria for final diagnosis of frozen shoulder:(1)joint space capacity less than 10ml;(2)irregularity of capsular margin; (3)diminished or absent axillary recess.Once frozen shoulder is confirmed,the patient is randomly arranged to receive a specific treatment program.

(B) Treatment program:

The treatment program and grouping arranged as follow:

Group 1:Physical modalities + therapeutic exercise Group 2:Physical modalities + therapeutic exercise+ intra-articular injection of steroid Gouup 3:Therapeutic exercise

(C) Sample size estimation: We assume α=0.05,power=1-α=0.95,from previous literature(10),change of ROM in flexion, abduction, external rotation, internal rotation before and after treatment was estimated as 40,40,40,20 degrees respectively,,standard deviation was 10,15,10,10 degrees respectively.Therefore,standard effective size was 4,2.6,4,2 respectively.From applied linear statistical models(13)fourth edition,1996,if α=0.05 sample size estimated as 5,7,5,10 Respectively.Therefore,sample size in each group is estimated as 10.