Objective:

Our purpose was to assess the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid infiltrations for chronic shoulder pain as an alternative to the non-surgical and surgical treatments that are currently available.

Material and methods:

This is a prospective study of 80 consecutive patients suffering from chronic shoulder pain followed for twelve months. Five subacromial hyaluronic acid injections on five consecutive weeks were administrated to all patients.

Results:

A significant improvement within the whole group after six months was observed. Constant score improved by 7.7 points, DASH questionnaire decreased by 5 points and Visual Analog Scale for pain decreased by 1.6 points. Patients with history of less than 24 months of pain responded better to treatment. Females responded better. Patients with decreased subacromial space or cuff tear in the MRI improved but patients diagnosed by the MRI of acromioclavicular osteoarthritis worsened in all scales assessed.

Discussion:

Subacromial hyaluronic acid injections are specially effective in patients with history of less than 24 months of pain, a decreased subacromial space or partial or total cuff tear but, in our experience, its result is not good in patients with acromioclavicular osteoarthritis.