Calcifying Tendonitis of the Rotator Cuff. In Arthroscopy: Basic to Advanced. (Book Chapter)

Calcific tendonitis is a common cause of shoulder pain which mainly affects patients within the age of 30–60 years. Women are more frequently affected. Patients suffer from typical impingement pain which may highly impair shoulder function as well as quality of life. Additional ultrasound and radiological evaluation of the affected shoulder can secure the diagnosis. Moreover, the size and the shape of the calcific deposit as well as the localization can be determined.
Conservative treatment consists of oral anti-inflammatories, analgetics, subacromial injections, and physical therapy. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy as well as percutaneous needling with barbotage of the deposits have shown to decrease pain and may induce resorption of the deposit in a significant amount of patients. If conservative treatment fails, arthroscopic procedures consist of removal of the deposit with or without rotator cuff repair, bursectomy, as well as additional or isolated acromioplasty leading to excellent clinical results with a low complication rate. However, based on current literature, the optimal choice of treatment still remains uncertain, as no procedure has shown to be significantly superior to the others.