ArticleFrontiers in surgery2026
Collagen injections versus dry needling in the treatment of chronic supraspinatus tendinopathy: a randomized controlled trial.
Article in Frontiers in surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The role of injectable porcine type I collagen (Tropocollagen) in chronic musculoskeletal disorders.Rheumatology international · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Purpose: This randomized controlled study compares ultrasound-guided collagen injections (USG-CI) vs. ultrasound- guided dry needling (USG-DN) for treating chronic supraspinatus tendinopathy. Methods: Forty patients were randomly divided into two groups of 20 each. Group A received four weekly collagen injections, while Group B underwent two dry needling sessions four weeks apart. Both groups followed the same rehabilitation protocol. Outcomes were measured using the Constant-Murley Score (CMS), the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire (DASH) questionnaire, and Ingwersen ultrasound score at baseline, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months. Results: While no significant differences were found at 2 weeks, group A showed statistically significant improvements at 1 and 3 months compared to group B in both CMS and DASH scores. Ultrasound evaluation also revealed better structural improvement in group A. Both treatments improved pain and functionality, but USG-CI demonstrated a statistically significant advantage in clinical scores and tendon morphology at three months. The superiority of collagen injections may be attributed to their ability to stimulate tenocyte proliferation, endogenous collagen synthesis, and restoration of collagen fibers in damaged tendons. While USG-DN also showed therapeutic effects through induced bleeding and growth factor release, it was less effective overall. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that U S G - CI could be a safe and feasible treatment for supraspinatus tendinopathy. The future development of our study could be a predictive patient profiling, concomitant imaging and objective outcome measures to allow identifying patients most suitable for USG-CI. Our study has some limitations, so further studies are required to confirm these preliminary data.
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