What to know about this Chandler guide

What to know before using a booking link

The people who own the Phoenix-area QC Kinetix clinics run this guide. They also own the Chandler clinic reached through its booking links, so they may gain when you schedule a visit. Keep that money tie in mind while reading about care. You don’t need to study medical papers yourself. If a treatment interests you, ask your doctor what researchers found and whether the choice fits your health.

You’ll find the same ownership notice in the footer.

How to use the guide without delaying care

Use these pages to note how soreness began, which movements hurt, and which daily jobs aren’t possible now. Don’t use them to rule out a heart problem, infection, broken bone, or sudden tendon tear. Call emergency services for chest symptoms. Seek same-day care when weakness starts after an injury or fever comes with a hot shoulder. For routine soreness, take notes, medicine names, and old images to your doctor. Ask about likely relief, total cost, time needed afterward, and whether it’s safer to wait before starting treatment.

QC Kinetix medical providers—the health workers responsible for checking your shoulder and giving office care—offer regenerative treatments made from prepared blood; ask whether the person doing your exam is a doctor.

Sources

1. In a nationally representative Finnish population sample of 602 adults aged 41-76 who had bilateral 3-Tesla shoulder MRI regardless of symptoms, rotator cuff abnormalities were found in 98.7% of participants (25% tendinopathy, 62% partial-thickness tear, 11% full-thickness tear). Abnormalities were present in 96% of ASYMPTOMATIC shoulders. Only full-thickness tears were more common in symptomatic shoulders, and that difference all but disappeared after adjustment (absolute difference 0.8%, 95% CI -3.4% to 6.0%).

   Ibounig T, et al. — Incidental Rotator Cuff Abnormalities on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.. JAMA Intern Med, 2026. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.7903.

2. FDA states verbatim that stem cell, stromal vascular fraction, umbilical cord blood, Wharton's jelly, amniotic fluid and exosome products 'have [not] been approved for the treatment of any orthopedic condition, such as osteoarthritis, tendonitis, disc disease, tennis elbow, back pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain, or shoulder pain.' The only FDA-approved stem cell products in the United States are blood-forming (hematopoietic progenitor) cells from umbilical cord blood, approved only for disorders of blood production, and there are currently NO FDA-approved exosome products.

   U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Consumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells and Exosomes. FDA (Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research), 2020.

3. In the MOON Shoulder prospective cohort of 452 patients with symptomatic, ATRAUMATIC full-thickness rotator cuff tears, physical therapy succeeded in more than 70% of patients at 10 years: only 115 (27.0%) had surgery at any point over the decade. Patient-reported outcomes improved with physical therapy and did NOT decline over 10 years in those who never had surgery. The strongest predictor of early surgery was low patient expectation of physical therapy, not tear anatomy.

   Kuhn JE, et al. — The Predictors of Surgery for Symptomatic, Atraumatic Full-Thickness Rotator Cuff Tears Change Over Time: Ten-Year Outcomes of the MOON Shoulder Prospective Cohort.. J Bone Joint Surg Am, 2024. DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.23.00978.

4. UK FROST randomized 503 adults with primary frozen shoulder to manipulation under anaesthesia, arthroscopic capsular release, or early structured physiotherapy with steroid injection. At 12 months every between-group difference on the Oxford Shoulder Score was smaller than the target difference, so NONE of the three was clinically superior. Capsular release carried the most serious adverse events (8 versus 2 with manipulation), and manipulation under anaesthesia was the most cost-effective.

   Rangan A, et al. — Management of adults with primary frozen shoulder in secondary care (UK FROST): a multicentre, pragmatic, three-arm, superiority randomised clinical trial.. Lancet, 2020. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31965-6.

5. At 10 years, arthroscopic subacromial decompression offered NO benefit over placebo surgery for subacromial pain syndrome: the mean difference in VAS pain was -1.5 points (95% CI -8.6 to 5.6) at rest and -3.2 points (-13.0 to 6.5) on arm activity, against a minimally important difference of 15. It also showed no benefit over exercise therapy.

   Kanto K, et al. — Arthroscopic subacromial decompression versus placebo surgery for subacromial pain syndrome: 10 year follow-up of the FIMPACT randomised, placebo surgery controlled trial.. BMJ, 2025. DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2025-086201.

6. A meta-analysis of eight randomized trials of PRP for rotator cuff tendinopathy concluded PRP was a safe and effective intervention for long-term pain control and shoulder function - but the review itself records that PRP preparation and injection technique varied between studies and that the control interventions differed (saline in four trials, rehabilitation or dry needling in the other four), which is why its conclusion sits alongside more cautious reviews rather than settling the question.

   A Hamid MS, et al. — Platelet-rich plasma for rotator cuff tendinopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. PLoS One, 2021. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251111.

7. A JBJS review of orthobiologics for glenohumeral osteoarthritis notes the glenohumeral joint ranks third after knee and hip for osteoarthritis, that standard non-surgical options have shown only moderate and short-term effectiveness, and that despite promising early results for PRP and cell therapies, ADDITIONAL STUDIES are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

   Rossi LA, et al. — Glenohumeral Osteoarthritis: The Role for Orthobiologic Therapies: Platelet-Rich Plasma and Cell Therapies.. JBJS Rev, 2020. DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.RVW.19.00075.