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I agree with the authors that studies like pain in the shoulder joint require specific diagnosis and merely generalising to some non-specific categories will mislead many readers. This is true not only for the shoulder joint, where conditions like supraspinatus tendinitis is entirely different from lesions of the infraspinatus muscle and even different from lesions of the supraspinatus muscle.
The same is true with all types of pain in the low, mid or upper back, where nearly all the structures can produce pain. Treatments therefore must differ from place to place and structure to structure.
So it is unwise to include such different problems within a single study. Every lesion should be individually diagnosed and studied separately.
Symptoms from a specific structure require a specific diagnosis
The same is true with all types of pain in the low, mid or upper back, where nearly all the structures can produce pain. Treatments therefore must differ from place to place and structure to structure.
So it is unwise to include such different problems within a single study. Every lesion should be individually diagnosed and studied separately.
Competing interests: No competing interests