Table 2.

Studies of conservative treatment for AC.

Authors	Year	Study	Level of evidence	Management	Number of shoulders	Follow-up	Results
Buchbinder et al.31	2004	RCT	II	Prednisolone vs. placebo	50	12 weeks	Good
Widiastutisamekto et al.32	2004	RCT	II	Intraarticular steroid injection and physiotherapy vs. oral steroid and physiotherapy	26	2 weeks	Excellent
Calis et al.34	2006	RCT	I	Sodium hyaluronate injection vs. intraarticular steroid injection and physical therapy	95	3 months	Poor
Carrete et al.35	2003	RCT	II	Intraarticular corticosteroid injection and physiotherapy vs intraarticular corticosteroid injection alone, physiotherapy alone and placebo	93	12 moths	Good
Ryans et al.36	2005	RCT	II	Intraarticular corticosteroid injection and physiotherapy intraarticular corticosteroid injection alone, placebo injection and physiotherapy, placebo	78	16 weeks	Excellent
Lorbach et al.33	2010	RCT	II	Oral corticosteroids vs. intraarticular corticosteroid injection	40	12 moths	Excellent
Rovetta et al.37	1998	RCT	II	Intraarticular sodium hyaluronate and corticosteroid injection vs corticosteroid injection	30	6 months	Good
Takagishi et al.38	1996	RCT	II	Intraarticular sodium hyaluronate vs corticosteroid injection	20	5 weeks	Good
Bulgen et al.41	1984	RCT	II	Intraarticular corticosteroid injection, mobilization, ice therapy, placebo	42	8 months	Poor
Griggs et al.42	2000	Prospective not randomized	III	Supervised stretching-exercise program	77	22 months	Good
Tanaka et al.47	2010	RCT	II	joint mobilization and home self-exercise	120	24 months	Excellent
Dicrkes et al.43	2004	Prospective not randomized	III	Intensive physiotherapy vs. gentle physiotherapy	77	24 months	Poor
Vermeulen et al.44	2006	RCT	II	High-grade mobilization techniques vs gentle mobilization techniques	100	12 months	Good
Johonson et al.45	2007	RCT	I	Anterior vs posterior glide mobilization technique	20	Not reported	Excellent
Stergioulas49	2008	RCT	II	low-power laser therapy (LLLT) vs placebo	63	16 weeks	Good
Leung et al.50	2008	RCT	II	Deep heating plus stretching vs superficial heating plus stretching or stretching exercises alone	30	4 weeks	Excellent
Dahan et al.51	2000	RCT	II	Supivacaine suprascapular nerve block vs placebo	34	1 month	Poor
Jones et al.52	1999	RCT	I	Suprascapular nerve block vs intra-articular corticosteroids	30	12 weeks	Good
Buchbinder et al.55	2004	RCT	I	Arthrographic distension with saline and corticosteoird vs placebo	48	3 months	Good
Khan et al.56	2005	RCT	I	TENS and infra-red radiation alone vs physical therapies and intra-articular corticosteroids	40	8 weeks	Good
Jacobs et al.57	1991	RCT	II	Distension only vs, steroid only or steroid with distension	47	3 months	Poor
Corbeil et al.58	1992	RCT	II	Arthrographic distension and corticosteoird vs nondistensive arthrography and corticosteoird	45	3 months	Poor
Gam et al.59	1998	RCT	II	Distension and steroid vs steroid alone	22	12 weeks	Good
Kiwimaki et al.60	2007	RCT	II	MUA vs exercise program	125	12 months	Poor
Quaraishi et al.61	2007	RCT	I	MUA vs hydrodilatation	36	6 months	Poor
Farrel et al.63	2005	Case series	III	MUA	26	15 years	Excellent