Ultrasound-Guided Biceps Tendon Sheath Injection: Spectrum of Preprocedure Appearances

ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Chronic Shoulder Pain: 2022 Update

Chronic shoulder pain is an extremely common presenting complaint. Potential pain generators include the rotator cuff tendons, biceps tendon, labrum, glenohumeral articular cartilage, acromioclavicular joint, bones, suprascapular and axillary nerves, and the joint capsule/synovium. Radiographs are typically the initial imaging study obtained in patients with chronic shoulder pain. Further imaging may often be required, with modality chosen based on patient symptoms and physical examination findings, which may lead the clinician to suspect a specific pain generator. The American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria are evidence-based guidelines for specific clinical conditions that are reviewed annually by a multidisciplinary expert panel. The guideline development and revision process support the systematic analysis of the medical literature from peer reviewed journals. Established methodology principles such as Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation or GRADE are adapted to evaluate the evidence. The RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method User Manual provides the methodology to determine the appropriateness of imaging and treatment procedures for specific clinical scenarios. In those instances where peer reviewed literature is lacking or equivocal, experts may be the primary evidentiary source available to formulate a recommendation.

Ultrasound-guided injection of the pisotriquetral joint: technique and case series

PURPOSE

To describe our techniques for ultrasound-guided injection of the pisotriquetral joint (PTJ), and to report our experience in a case series.

METHODS

Between 7/1/14 and 11/30/20, we performed 42 injections in 33 patients with ulnar-sided wrist pain, referred by clinicians who suspected the PTJ as the pain generator. There were 16 males and 17 females, average age 46.7 years. The patients were positioned in one of five ways: sitting with the hand maximally supinated; sitting with the hand maximally pronated; supine with the elbow flexed across the chest and the ulnar aspect of the wrist facing upward; supine with the elbow flexed, the arm externally rotated, and the ulnar aspect of the wrist facing upward; prone with the symptomatic hand at their side and the ulnar aspect of the wrist facing upward.

RESULTS

The procedures were performed by any of twelve fellowship-trained musculoskeletal radiologists. Fifteen patients reported immediate relief of symptoms, including 6 patients whose pisotriquetral joints were normal sonographically. Four patients underwent subsequent surgical excision of their pisiforms and the fifth underwent arthroscopic debridement of the pisotriquetral joint.

CONCLUSION

Ultrasound is a facile imaging modality for guiding pisotriquetral injections, which may be accomplished with a variety of patient positions and injection techniques.