The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of dynamic splinting on adhesive capsulitis in a prospective, cohort study. Although dynamic splinting for other extremity joints have been studied [10,24], this is the first controlled study investigating the effects of the dynasplint shoulder system. The results showed the efficacy of dynamic splinting as an effective "home therapy" adjunct to physical therapy. The additional 80 to 90 hours of end-range stretching as home therapy combined with standardized physical therapy is considered to be responsible for the greatest change in AROM of external rotation.
The results were in agreement with the study by Griggs et. al. [9], which demonstrated that a conservative treatment protocol of four-direction shoulder-stretching exercise program would benefit shoulder flexibility. This experiment also confirmed the findings of Dudkiewicz et al.[6] which described the efficacy of "conservative protocols." Because ROM deficits frequently exist in external rotation, this experiment chose to examine only that plane following treatment with physical therapy and/or the SDS.