Treatment of the calcific tendinopathy of the rotator cuff by ultrasound-guided percutaneous needle lavage. Two years prospective study.

Background: to evaluate the short and long term effectiveness of ultrasonography (US)-guided percutaneous needle lavage in calcific tendinopathy of the rotator cuff. To study the evolution of the size of calcifications and pain in the two years after treatment.

Study Design: A 2 year longitudinal prospective study is carried out after applying the UGPL technique on a number of patients diagnosed with calcific tendinitis of the rotator cuff. Clinical, ultrasound and radiology follow-up controls were performed, 3 months, 6 months, one year and two years after the treatment. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to assess the pain. The degree and point of pain is selected on a 10 cm line, arranged horizontally or vertically. The "0" represents no pain and "10" represents worst pain. The population studied was made up of 121 patients that required our service as a result of suffering from a painful shoulder.

Results: the pain (VAS) and the size of the calcification significantly decreased with the application of the technique (p< 0,001 in both cases) and regardless of the sex (p: 0.384 for pain and p: 0.578 for the size of the calcification). This occurred from the first check-up (3 months) and was maintained for two year.

Conclusions: we consider this technique to be a valid alternative as a first-choice treatment of calcific tendinitis of the shoulder. The intervention is simple, cost-effective, does not require hospitalization, involves no complications, rehabilitation treatment is not required and it shows very few side effects without sequelae, significantly reducing the size of the calcification and pain in the majority of patients.