Ultrasonographic diagnosis in the rehabilitation process of patients with painful shoulders

Abstract

Introduction: painful shoulder syndrome encompasses a set of signs and symptoms that include alterations of muscles, tendons, nerves, tendon sheaths, nerve entrapment syndromes, joint and neurovascular alterations. Ultrasound is an accessible diagnostic tool in the care of patients with musculoskeletal diseases. Objective: to evaluate the usefulness of ultrasound in the rehabilitation process of patients with painful shoulder. Method: an experimental study was conducted in 30 patients attended at the Institute of Sports Medicine of Havana, in the period from July to December 2018, with a diagnosis of painful shoulder. Two groups were formed: control group (to which a conventional treatment with pendular physical exercises was applied) and an experimental group (treated with a battery of physical-propioceptive exercises). The variables sex, age, lesions diagnosed by ultrasound and active mobility during internal rotation were studied. Results: male sex and age group between 50 and 59 years old predominated. The most frequent ultrasonographic diagnosis was calcified supraspinatus tendinitis, followed by subacromio-subdeltoid bursitis and subcoracoid bursitis. Conclusions: it is evaluated of adequate validity and good correlation between ultrasound findings and clinical data in patients with painful shoulder. The application of a battery of proprioceptive physical exercises in the experimental group, allowed determining that there was a better performance of these exercises in comparison to the pendular exercises, in terms of functional recovery in less time in patients with painful shoulder.