Current management and prognostic factors in physiotherapy practice for patients with shoulder pain: design of a prospective cohort study

Yasmaine H J M Karel, Wendy G M Scholten-Peeters, Marloes Thoomes-de Graaf, Edwin Duijn, Ramon P G Ottenheijm, Maaike P J van den Borne, Bart W Koes, Arianne P Verhagen, Geert-Jan Dinant, Eric Tetteroo, Annechien Beumer, Joost B van Broekhoven, Marcel Heijmans

Shoulder pain is disabling and has a considerable socio-economic impact. Over 50% of patients presenting in primary care still have symptoms after 6 months; moreover, prognostic factors such as pain intensity, age, disability level and duration of complaints are associated with poor outcome. Most shoulder complaints in this group are categorized as non-specific. Musculoskeletal ultrasound might be a useful imaging method to detect subgroups of patients with subacromial disorders.This article describes the design of a prospective cohort study evaluating the influence of known prognostic and possible prognostic factors, such as findings from musculoskeletal ultrasound outcome and working alliance, on the recovery of shoulder pain. Also, to assess the usual physiotherapy care for shoulder pain and examine the inter-rater reliability of musculoskeletal ultrasound between radiologists and physiotherapists for patients with shoulder pain.