MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS MANAGEMENT AND THE ROLE OF PHYSICAL AND REHABILITATION MEDICINE PHYSICIANS. THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE BASED ON THE BEST EVIDENCE Free

European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine 2013 October;49(5):743-51

Copyright © 2013 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Shoulder pain management. The role of physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians. The European perspective based on the best evidence. A paper by the UEMS-PRM Section Professional Practice Committee

Varela E. ¹, Valero R. ¹, Küçükdeveci A. A. ², Oral A. ³, Ilieva E. ⁴, Berteanu M. ⁵, Christodoulou N. ⁶ ✉

¹ Member, Professional Practice Committee, UEMS Section of PRM, Departamento de Medicina Física y Rehabilitación, Facultad de Medicina UCM, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain; ² Member, Professional Practice Committee, UEMS Section of PRM, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey; ³ Member, Board Committee, UEMS Board of PRM, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey; ⁴ Member, Professional Practice Committee, UEMS Section of PRM, Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Medical Faculty, Medical University of Plovdiv Plovdiv, Bulgaria; ⁵ Chairman, Professional Practice Committee, UEMS Section of PRM, Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, University Hospital Elias, Bucharest, Romania; ⁶ President, UEMS Section of PRM, Department of Health Sciences, School of Sciences, European University Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

One of the objectives of the Professional Practice Committee (PPC) of the Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) Section of the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS) is the development of the field of competence of PRM physicians in Europe. To achieve this objective, UEMS PRM Section PPC has adopted a systematic action plan of preparing a series of papers describing the role of PRM physicians in a number of disabling health conditions, based on the evidence of effectiveness of the physical and rehabilitation medicine interventions. According to the PCC of the UEMS-PRM Section, the role of PRM physician in the management of shoulder pain (SP) has to be situated inside the general pain management field. SP is a common condition that can place limitations on the activity and restriction in social life participation of sufferers. A variety of shoulder problems, commonly including subacromial impingement, calcifying tendinitis, frozen shoulder, acromio-clavicular disturbances, gleno-humeral instability and gleno-humeral arthritis, can cause pain, and patients should be assessed and treated in order to relieve symptoms and reduce disability. This position paper describes the role of the PRM specialist in the management of such patients. Many assessment methods and treatment interventions are usually used in the management of patients with SP. Depending on the process, disability and patient characteristics, some intervention modalities have reported evidence in pain relief, movement and daily life activity (DLA) restoration, thus permiting a patient early recovery and social participation. Oral medications, local injections, physical therapy modalities and exercises are normally used for the management of SP. The PRM specialist should, always use this best medical evidence to decide how to efficiently and effectively reduce SP-related disability. An adequate therapeutic algorithm is also proposed in order to channelize the above mentioned evidence and reach the best results.