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Treatment of Neck Pain With Myofascial Therapies: A Single Blind Randomized Controlled Trial
Manuel Rodríguez-Huguet1, Daniel Rodríguez-Almagro2, Pablo Rodríguez-Huguet3
1Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain.
Objective:
This study aimed to investigate the effects of myofascial release therapy vs a standard physical therapy program in patients with neck pain (NP).
Methods:
This was a randomized controlled trial in which 54 participants with mechanical NP were randomly assigned into an experimental group (EG) or a comparison group (CG). The EG group (n = 27) received 5 therapy sessions of myofascial release therapy while the CG group (n = 27) received 10 sessions of massage, ultrasound therapy, and transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation over a 2-week period. Outcome measures were the numerical pain rating scale (NPRS), pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) and range of motion at the end of treatment and at 1-month follow-up.
Results:
At 1-month follow-up, between-group differences in change scores were found in the NPRS (mean = -1.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-2.30 to -0.81]; P < .001), in the right thoracic PPT (mean = 0.35, 95% CI [0.03-0.66]; P = .031), and in both left (mean = 0.34, 95% CI [0.08-0.61]; P = .012) and right (mean = 0.29, 95% CI [0.04-0.54]; P = .026) suboccipital PPTs. The success rate was 63.0% in the CG and 92.6% in the EG. The number needed to treat was 3.38 (95% CI = 1.99-11.23).
Conclusions:
Myofascial release therapy could be better than a standard physical therapy program for improving pain and suboccipital PPTs in patients with NP. However, the difference between both treatments is less than the minimum detectable change of the NPRS.
