Recent Review of Hyaluronate in Shoulder joint arthritis found it effectve for control
Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2010 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print]
Therapeutic effects of hyaluronate injections in patients with chronic painful shoulder: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Saito S, Furuya T, Kotake S. abstract here
“RESULTS: Nineteen RCTs (2120 participants) were pooled for the meta-analysis. Injection of HA can decrease symptoms of chronic painful shoulder. A improvement was found in pain outcomes (SMD: 0.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.26-0.53 and OR: 1.84, 95% CI 1.49-2.26) and total functional scores (SMD: 0.36, 95% CI 0.01-0.71) with few adverse events (RR: 1.01, 95% CI 0.58-1.78). Improvement in shoulder ROM was not effectively achieved. HA injection was modestly more effective than steroid injection, as estimated by total functional score (SMD: 0.36, 95% CI 0.02-0.70), which indicated a likely benefit of injection of HA over steroid injection. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis confirms that HA injection is effective in relief of pain and is a safe alternative therapy for chronic painful shoulder.”
Comment – unfortunately no mention of use in rotator cuff disease. Cost is always an issue with this treatment