Percutaneous treatments of painful shoulder.

Percutaneous treatments are useful in two, frequent, painful conditions involving the shoulder. In frozen shoulder syndrome, distention arthrography with intra-articular injection of steroid is used to provide pain relief and to improve joint motion. In rotator cuff tendon calcifications, needle aspiration of calcific deposits is used to treat pain. Surgery should be restricted to failures of needle aspiration. The techniques of these procedures are described and their results are reported.