Predicting the outcome of conservative treatment with physiotherapy in adults with shoulder pain associated with partial-thickness rotator cuff tears – a prognostic model development study

Table 5 Breakdown of physiotherapy treatment

Category	Domain (n = 65)	N	%
Types of exercises	Strengthening exercises focused at rotator cuff muscles	52	80
	Scapula positioning exercises	47	72
	Stabilisation exercises	41	63
	Stretching techniques or exercises (shoulder/shoulder girdle)	36	55
	Strengthening exercises focused at shoulder girdle muscles	34	52
	Humeral head ‘positioning’ exercises	33	51
	Coordination exercises	25	38
	Inclusion of high load exercises (> 80% RPM^†)	5	8
	Correction of thoracic spine posture^*	2	3
	Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)^*	1	2
Types of exercise equipment	Use of small equipment (e.g. elastic bands)	45	69
Types of exercise equipment	Use of training machines (e.g. pulley, pull-down)	27	42
Setting of exercise treatment	Provision and supervision of supplementary home exercises	42	65
Types of manual techniques	Soft tissue techniques (shoulder or shoulder girdle)	56	86
	Manual mobilisation techniques (shoulder)	51	78
	Manual mobilisation of thoracic spine^*	9	14
	Manual mobilisation of ribs^*	2	3
	Manual mobilisation of cervical spine^*	2	3
Supplementary modalities	Heat or cold applications	14	22
Supplementary modalities	Therapeutic ultrasound^*	1	2

Interventions are listed by general category and specific domain; domains are in descending order of use; ^*recorded in “anything else?” category (physiotherapy report form); ^†RPM = one-repetition maximum

ISSN: 1471-2474