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Continuous suprascapular nerve blockade to potentiate intensive rehabilitation for refractory adhesive shoulder capsulitis: a cohort study

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Abstract

Purpose

Evaluating the short- and long-term efficacy of a continuous ten day suprascapular nerve block combined with daily multidisciplinary rehabilitation on shoulder range of motion (ROM), pain, and function in patients with refractory adhesive capsulitis (AC).

Methods

In this retrospective cohort study, patients admitted to a specialized pain clinic for refractory AC for more than 6 months underwent continuous suprascapular nerve blockade for ten days and received 2 hours of physiotherapy and occupational therapy daily. Standardized assessments were performed at baseline, at days three, six, ten, 30, 90, and 180, and included active and passive ROM measurements, the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain and the disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (DASH) questionnaire to assess pain, disability, and quality of life. Improvements over time were assessed using ANOVAs.

Results

Thirty-two patients were followed (age: 52 ± 8 years, 25 females, mean symptoms duration of two years). There was a significant improvement in ROM for all amplitudes at day ten (short-term; range: 20–35°, p < 0.001) and at day 180 (long-term; range: 18–47°, p < 0.001). The pain and disability scores significantly reduced by day 180 (mean VAS reduction: 2.6 units, p < 0.001; mean DASH reduction: 9.5 points, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Continuous SSNB combined with intensive multidisciplinary rehabilitation represents an efficient therapeutic option for patients with chronic AC who did not respond to conventional treatments.

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Data availability

Anonymized participant’s data will be made available by motivated request to the corresponding author (geraldine.martens@uliege.be).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the patients for their participation in this study. The authors would like to acknowledge the work of master’s students in physiotherapy involved in participants’ recruitment, data collection, data management, and data curation: Kévin Fontaine, Gilles Gertz, Claire Philippe, and Nasser Yahya.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Sports Traumatology, SportS², FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, IOC Research Centre for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health, FIMS Collaborative Center of Sports Medicine, University and University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Géraldine Martens, Karim Benmouna, Jean-François Kaux & Bénédicte Forthomme

  2. Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Géraldine Martens, Jean-François Kaux & Bénédicte Forthomme

  3. Anesthesia & Intensive Care Department, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Robert Fontaine, Mélissa Raaf, Hadrien Tasset & Jean-Pierre Lecoq

  4. Anesthesia & Intensive Care Department, MontLegia Hospital, Groupe Santé CHC, Liège, Belgium

    Pierre Goffin & Mélissa Raaf

  5. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Pierre Goffin

Authors
  1. Géraldine Martens
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  2. Robert Fontaine
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Contributions

G.M.: data curation, formal analysis, visualization, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing; R.F.: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, and writing—review and editing; P.G.: investigation and writing—review and editing; M.R.: investigation and writing—review and editing; H.T.: investigation and writing—review and editing; J.P.L.: investigation, methodology, and writing—review and editing; K.B.: investigation and writing—review and editing; J.F.K.: conceptualization, methodology, project administration, and writing—review and editing; B.F.: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Géraldine Martens.

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Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This observational retrospective study has been approved by the institutional ethics committee of the University and University Hospital of Liège, Belgium (reference 2014/20, Committee Nr 707-505, EudraCT 2004-000194-39).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Martens, G., Fontaine, R., Goffin, P. et al. Continuous suprascapular nerve blockade to potentiate intensive rehabilitation for refractory adhesive shoulder capsulitis: a cohort study. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) 48, 495–503 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-023-05999-0

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