Association Between Radiographic Glenohumeral Osteoarthritis and Pain Relief from Conservative Physical Therapy: A Retrospective Analysis

Research Objectives: To investigate the effect that glenohumeral osteoarthritis (GHOA) imaging findings have on pain relief from physical therapy (PT) in order to better understand outcomes and maximize appropriate referral to PT.

Design: Retrospective cohort study

Setting: Multiple outpatient physical therapy clinics within a single hospital system

Participants: Patients (n=114) with or without shoulder OA who received PT for shoulder pain between 2016 and 2022 in a single hospital system. Exclusion criteria was prior shoulder surgery.

Interventions: Patients received standard PT for treatment of GHOA at the clinician's discretion.

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was pain via the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Grouping was determined by severity of GHOA as described in the radiograph results. Patients with no GHOA were placed in the “None” group (n=51), patients with mild GHOA were placed in the “Mild” group (n=34), and patients with moderate or severe GHOA were placed in the “Moderate/Severe” group (n=29).

Results: Patients (n=114) had an average age (standard deviation) of 61.9 (12.9) years. There was a significant improvement in pain levels in the “None” group (p <.01) as well as the “Mild” group (p <.01) due to PT. No significant difference in the magnitude of pain improvement was found between the “None” group and the “Mild” group (p=.22). There was no significant improvement in pain levels in the “Moderate/Severe” group (p=.13).

Conclusions: Significant pain relief in patients with radiographic GHOA after physical therapy is dependent upon severity of GHOA. Patients without GHOA and mild GHOA both had significant improvements in pain without significant differences between both groups. Patients with moderate or severe GHOA did not show a significant improvement in pain after physical therapy.

Author(s) Disclosures: None of the authors have any significant conflicts to disclose.