Corticosteroid Injection for Tendinopathy: Short-Term Relief Against Medium-Term Structural Cost
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22548648Keywords:
Corticosteroid injection, Tendinopathy, Tendon rupture, Lateral epicondylalgia, Achilles tendinopathy, Systematic reviewAbstract
Corticosteroid injection remains widely used for tendinopathy across multiple tendon sites because of its
reliable short-term analgesic effect, yet a substantial and consistent body of randomised trial and
meta-analytic evidence indicates that this early benefit is not sustained beyond several weeks and is
reversed at medium-term follow-up, where exercise-based treatment outperforms it. Separately,
mechanistic and observational evidence has raised concern about corticosteroid's direct effect on tendon
structure, including reports of increased rupture risk at load-bearing sites. This systematic review
synthesises the randomised trial, meta-analytic, and structural-outcome literature across lateral
epicondylalgia, rotator cuff tendinopathy, patellar tendinopathy, Achilles tendinopathy, and plantar
fasciopathy to characterise this short-term-benefit, medium-term-cost pattern and its implications for
tendon injection practice.
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