The Use of Hyaluronic Acid after Tendon Surgery and in Tendinopathies

Table 1

Effects of HA in rotator cuff disorders.

Author (year)	Disease	Experimental groups^∧	Protocol	Outcomes measures	Follow-up	Results
Shibata et al. (2001) [24]	FTT	LMW HA (27); Steroid (28)	5 intra-articular injections; (1-week interval)	ROM, UCLA	6 months	No difference
Meloni et al. (2008) [25]	Tendinosis	LMW HA (28); Saline (28)	5 injections over the superior tendon surface; (1-week interval)	ROM, VAS	12 months	Better results in HA group
Costantino et al. (2009) [26]	FTT	LMW HA (22)*; No control group	3 intra-articular injections; (1-week interval)	ROM, VAS, Costant	6 months	Pain reduction; ROM improvement
Chou et al. (2010) [27]	PTT; Tendinosis	LMW HA (25); Saline (26)	5 injections into SAD; (1-week interval)	VAS, Costant	33 months	Better result in HA group
Ozgen et al. (2012) [28]	Tendinosis	HMW HA (12)*; Physical therapy (12)*	3 intra-articular injections; (1-week interval)	ROM, VAS	3–42 months	No difference
Merolla et al. (2013) [29]	Tendinosis	LMW HA (25); Rehab (23)	2 injections over the superior tendon surface; (2-week interval)	VAS, Costant, Oxford	6 months	No difference at week 2 ; HA better at weeks 4, 12, and 24

FTT: full thickness tear.
PTT: partial thickness tear.
^∧ In brackets the number of patients is reported.
*Home exercise programs were prescribed.
SAD: subacromial-deltoid bursa.