The effectiveness of steroid injection in the treatment of primary osteoarthritis of the acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) has been questioned. We prospectively evaluated the outcome of 20 consecutive patients (25 shoulders) with clinical and radiological evidence of primary ACJ arthritis after steroid injections. All patients were evaluated using the Constant score after a minimum of 12 months follow up. Only patients with a negative provocative test after injection of 2ml of depomedrone and lignocaine were included in the study. Eleven females (14 shoulders) and 9 males (11 shoulders) were included. The average age was 53.9 years. The mean preinjection score was 61.6 points (SD 13.12) and at 6 months this improved to 81 points, mean difference of 19.36 (CI = 14.19 – 24.53), p<
0.01, which was highly statistically significant. There was further improvement at 12 months, on the 6 month score, mean 88.4 points, mean difference of 7.4 (CI = 3.55 – 11.25), p = 0.001 which was also statistically significant. In addition, the younger the patient, the greater the improvement in the objective score which measures the range of movement and power (r = −0.47; p = 0.01). We conclude that local steroid injection is an effective method of treatment for primary isolated acromioclavicular arthritis and improvement continues for at least 12 months, but may require more than one injection.
