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Treatment of hemiplegic shoulder pain in the Netherlands: results of a national survey

Heleen Beckerman

Gustaaf J Lankhorst

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University Hospital, Vrije Universiteit, and Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lex M Bouter

Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Objective: To describe the methods of treatment applied by physiotherapists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation physicians, nursing-home physicians and neurologists for hemiplegic shoulder pain, and to investigate their beliefs about the effectiveness of triamcinolone acetonide injections for this diagnosis.

Design: Postal questionnaire with structured and open-ended questions. If necessary, a written reminder was sent after 2–3 weeks.

Subjects: One hundred physiotherapists, 100 occupational therapists, 100 rehabilitation physicians, 100 nursing-home physicians and 100 neurologists in the Netherlands. These healthcare workers were all active in the rehabilitation of stroke patients.

Results: The response was 351 (70.2%), ranging from 58% (neurologists) to 83% (physiotherapists). Fifty-four different (combinations of) treatments were mentioned and were classified into eight treatment groups. The frequency of the first choice of treatment was: physiotherapy (32%), prevention/ instruction/education (22%), oral medication (8%), local injection (7%), sling (4%), referral (3%), other therapies (4%), and different combinations (20%).

In total, 86 respondents had applied local injections: 70 rehabilitation physicians, 10 nursing-home physicians and 6 neurologists. The injections used were: corticosteroids alone (51.2%), in combination with a local anaesthetic (37.2%) or a local anaesthetic only (9.3%). Belief in the effectiveness of triamcinolone injections, measured on a 0–100 point scale, was: physiotherapists median 62.5 (IQR 29.75–71.75), occupational therapists median 50.0 (IQR 43.0–63.0), rehabilitation physicians median 70.0 (IQR 56.5–80.0), nursing-home physicians median 35.0 (IQR 21.0–64.5), neurologists median 47.0 (IQR 20.0–63.0).

Conclusions: As preventive measures and physiotherapy, or a combination of both, were found to be the favourite methods of treatment for hemiplegic shoulder pain in this survey, it seems that most physicians and therapists rely on a mechanical approach to hemiplegic shoulder pain. Rehabilitation physicians used additional local (anti-inflammatory) injections.

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