Published 17 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b641
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b641

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Rotator cuff disease

Simultaneous lidocaine may have confounded results

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Ekeberg and colleagues in their carefully designed study provide further insight on the optimal approach for treating rotator cuff disease with steroid injections.¹ However, the decision to also inject lidocaine into the shoulder of patients who received systematic treatment by means of corticosteroid injection in the gluteus is not without criticism.

It may achieve blinding for the test subject by partly neutralising the potential pain caused by corticosteroid injection of the shoulder in the localised injection group, but it also introduces new confounders. For example, short term relief of symptoms in the systemic group might be a result of a reduction of muscle spasms and tension caused by local lidocaine injection rather than the systemic corticosteroid injection.

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b641

¹ University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA 98416, USA

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Competing interests: None declared.

1. Ekeberg OM, Bautz-Holter E, Tveitå EK, Juel NG, Kvalheim S, Brox JI. Subacromial ultrasound-guided or systemic steroid injection for rotator cuff disease: randomised double-blind study. BMJ 2009;338:a3112. (23 January.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

Subacromial ultrasound guided or systemic steroid injection for rotator cuff disease: randomised double blind study

Ole M Ekeberg, Erik Bautz-Holter, Einar K Tveitå, Niels G Juel, Synnøve Kvalheim, and Jens I Brox
BMJ 2009 338: a3112. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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