How effective is cortisone injection for calcific tendinitis?

Calcific tendinitis usually involves a calcium deposit within a tendon, most often around the shoulder. The surrounding tissues can become inflamed and painful, especially with reaching or lying on that side. Steroid medicine may calm this inflammatory response and improve comfort while the tendon settles.

The injection treats inflammation rather than the deposit. If pain continues or movement remains restricted, a clinician may discuss guided needling, physiotherapy, observation, or another approach based on the deposit’s position and the examination. Shoulder stiffness can need a separate rehabilitation plan.

Ask whether imaging confirms the deposit and where the medicine should be placed. Discuss the expected symptom change, alternatives, and how to protect the tendon afterward. Keep the shoulder moving within comfortable limits, then follow a gradual mobility and strengthening programme. Avoid sudden heavy overhead work while pain is reduced but movement control has not returned.

Contact the clinic for increasing redness, heat, swelling, drainage, fever, or escalating pain after the injection. Seek urgent evaluation for a new inability to lift the arm, sudden major weakness, severe swelling, or numbness that does not settle.

Is the deposit causing my symptoms, or is another shoulder problem involved? Will this injection target the tendon or nearby bursa? What treatment addresses the deposit itself? Which movements should I practise during recovery?