You can go to the certified physical therapist of your choice. If you do not already have a preferred physical therapist, our research staff can help refer you to one near you.
Yes, you and your physical therapist can determine how many physical therapy sessions you need to attend over the course of your treatment and how frequently.
The usual recommended physical therapy program is 1-2 times a week on average for 3 months (for non-operative treatment) or for 4 months (following surgery).
Yes. For example, if you are assigned to the non-operative (physical therapy) treatment group and later wish to have surgery on your shoulder, you can. We just ask that you wait 6 months before doing so, so we can accurately measure the effectiveness of your initial assigned treatment.
It takes 6 months for either treatment to be fully effective. Therefore, we ask participants to stick with their assigned treatment for at least 6 months.
We ask that you begin treatment within 8 weeks of enrolling in the trial. If there is too much difference between when people start treatment, it makes it difficult to accurately compare treatment results among participants. However, if for some reason you are unable to begin treatment within 8 weeks (2 months), you will still [...]
This is a randomized controlled trial, which means that if you choose to participate in the study, you will NOT choose which treatment you receive. You will be randomly assigned to either operative (surgery + physical therapy) or non-operative (physical therapy without surgery). There is a 50-50 chance of being in either group, regardless of [...]
It depends on what kind of study you are already participating in. If it is not related to your shoulder treatment, then the answer is most likely yes. Be sure to mention it to our research staff to make sure before enrolling in the ARC trial.
Yes, you can still participate in this study even if you have already had physical therapy for your shoulder.