DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sasjm.2026.v12i01.014

Pages: 72-76

Shoulder pain is a common symptom in primary care. Impingement syndrome is one of the most common diagnoses for shoulder pain. The condition is caused by one or more tendons in the rotator cuff being pinched. The diagnosis is often made clinically. Treatment can be pain-relieving tablets, physiotherapy, and/or subacromial corticosteroid injection, depending on the duration of the pain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of physiotherapy or no treatment compared with corticosteroid treatment, possibly followed by physiotherapy. The research questions were: 1. How does the long-term prognosis [1 year] differ for patients with impingement syndrome treated with corticosteroid injection compared with physiotherapy or no treatment. 2. Are the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare's treatment recommendations followed, i.e., physiotherapy and corticosteroid injection? The study was conducted as a retrospective medical record review. The study included 92 patients who had sought care at Cityhälsan Söder primary care center in Sweden due to shoulder pain, where the diagnosis after medical examination became impingement syndrome. All included patients were of working age. The patients were divided into two main groups: those who had received one or more corticosteroid injections and those who had not received any corticosteroid injection. The medical records were reviewed for one year forward from the date the patient was diagnosed with impingement syndrome. Patients who had not sought care for the same symptoms more than 1 year after diagnosis were considered cured of the shoulder pain. Those who had persistent symptoms and continued to seek care after one year were not considered cured. The result suggests that corticosteroid injection for patients with impingement syndrome has a favorable effect in the short term. The treatment does not worsen the long-term prognosis. The study indicates that we should continue to offer patients with this condition