International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork: Research, Education, and Practice最新文献

Background & purpose: There is a high incidence of chronic recurrent functional abdominal pain in children causing significant disruption to schooling, quality of life, and costs to the health care system. Treatment routinely includes behavioral, pharmacological, and invasive surgical interventions, with varying levels of impact. This study aims to examine the response of symptoms of functional gastro-intestinal disorders (FGID) in children to treatment of psoas muscle tension and tenderness using remedial massage therapy.

Setting & participants: Pediatric surgeon's rooms, remedial massage therapist rooms, consenting children aged 2-18.

Research design: Two years of clinical observations were analyzed including patient-reported symptoms, surgeon and remedial massage therapist observations, with 122 children suffering from moderate to severe FGID symptoms. Over the two year observation period, 96 children with FGID symptoms completed a course of remedial massage therapy to their psoas muscles.

Results: Improvement in psoas tension and tenderness on palpation was observed for all participants after an average of 5 treatments (range 2-12). Complete resolution of all symptoms of abdominal pain, reflux, vomiting, nausea, and bowel upset was seen in 88/96 (92%) participants at the time of treatment completion without side effects. Over the observation period, 72 children were followed up after completing remedial massage therapy; 75% reported they remained symptom free, 18% continued to have marked improvement and 7% mild improvement.

Conclusion: Despite study design limitations, more research is warranted on the potential for this low-cost, noninvasive therapeutic intervention to assist symptom management for children with FGID.

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are disabling diseases which affect work performance, thereby affecting the quality of life of individuals. Pharmacological and surgical management are the most recommended treatments. However, non-invasive physical therapies are said to be effective, for which the evidence is limited.

Aim/purpose: To study the effect of non-invasive physical interventions in preventing surgery among patients recommended for surgery for musculoskeletal complaints, who attended sports and fitness medicine centres in India.

Settings: SPARRC (Sports Performance Assessment Research Rehabilitation Counselling) Institute) is a physical therapy centre with 13 branches spread all over India. This Institute practices a combination of manual therapies to treat musculoskeletal complaints.

Research design: Descriptive cohort study involving the review of case records of the patients enrolled from June 2013 to July 2017, followed by the telephone survey of the patients who have completed treatment.

Intervention: Combination of physical therapies such as myofascial trigger release with icing, infra-red therapy, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, stretch release, aqua therapy, taping, and acupuncture were employed to reduce the pain and regain functionalities.

Main outcome measures: Self-reported pains were measured using visual analogue scale at different levels of therapy-preand post-therapy and post-rehabilitation.

Results: In total, 909 patients were studied, of whom 152 (17%) patients completed the treatment protocol. Majority of patients presented with knee and low-back pain. The reduction in pain due to the treatment protocol in terms of mean VAS score from baseline to post-therapy and baseline to post-rehabilitation was statistically significant (p value = .00). Among those contacted post-rehabilitation, 82 patients remained without surgery, and the median surgery-free time was around two years.

Conclusion: Thus the study concluded that non-invasive physical therapies may prevent or postpone surgeries for musculoskeletal complaints.

Background: Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain (PPGP) significantly impacts women's lives both physically and psychologically. Given the severity and impact of PPGP on pregnancy, the authors anticipated that pregnant women with PPGP might respond differently to massage than pregnant women without PPGP.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to further analyze a published 2017 study to assess the response of pregnancy massage in participants with and without PPGP.

Setting: Two massage clinics, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne, recruited participants from December 2016 to December 2017.

Participants: Nineteen women with PPGP and 78 without PPGP.

Research design: PPGP and non-PPGP women receiving at least one massage, with outcome measures assessed immediately prior to and after massage, and again one week postmassage.

Main outcome measures: Visual analog scales for pain, stress, range of movement, sleep, and self-reported side effects of massage.

Results: Both groups changed significantly and similarly over time for measures of pain, stress, range of motion, and sleep (all p < .05). Post hoc analysis found significant reduction in all outcome measures immediately following massage, but returned to baseline at one week postmassage for all measures except pain, which remained reduced for the PPGP group (49.79±25.68 to 34.75±34.75, p = .03, effect size 0.593), and stress remained reduced in the non-PPGP group (33.36±21.54 to 24.90±19.18, p = .002, effect size 0.373). The PPGP group entered the study with higher baseline levels of pain (p = .01) and a greater restriction in range of motion (p = .006) than the non-PPGP group. There was no difference in the number of side effects experienced between the two groups (p = .130).

Conclusions: Although PPGP clients report greater pain and restriction in range of motion at baseline than non-PPGP clients, the response to pregnancy massage was similar. Results support a role of pregnancy massage in the management of PPGP. More research on massage for PPGP is needed to confirm a lasting effect of pain reduction from massage.

Introduction: Postlaparoscopic shoulder pain (PLSP) has been well documented to effect patients following an abdominal or thoracic laparoscopic surgery. PLSP is characterized by referred pain that can occur both unilaterally or bilaterally, and is typically caused by phrenic nerve irritation. Current literature has focused on pharmacological treatment; however, there is limited evidence for the use of nonpharmacological management of PLSP in the pediatric population.

Case description: This retrospective case report study explores the use of a single-session massage therapy treatment for a 17-year-old patient with PLSP following laparoscopic abdominal surgery.

Intervention and results: Therapy intervention included a 25 min Swedish massage involving the effected shoulder with an emphasis on passive touch to the shoulder and at the level of the diaphragm. Pain was assessed using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pre- and postintervention. Following therapy the patient reported 0/10 pain.

Conclusion: This case report provides evidence for the use of massage therapy treatment as a noninvasive, nonpharmacological approach to reducing or eliminating PLSP in a pediatric patient.