Effects of Kinesiotaping on shoulder pain as a single therapy or in combination with physiotherapy: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract: Abstract  Shoulder pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries; there are different methods employed in its treatment, among them is Kinesiotaping. We evaluated the effects of Kinesiotaping and its variation according to the time of application on pain, range of motion and strength in people with shoulder pain, alone or as a complement to physical therapy. To do this, we conducted a Quasi-experimental study, on 50 patients with shoulder pain, who were assigned to 4 intervention groups for 11 days: 1-Kinesiotaping (n = 12), 2-Physiotherapy (n = 13), 3-Kinesiotaping plus Physiotherapy (n = 12) and 4-Physiotherapy plus Kinesiotaping (n = 13). We performed an analysis of differences-in-differences using linear regression, finding a pain reduction of 65.2 mm (95%CI: −81.9; −48.5) in visual analog scale for kinesiotaping group. Physiotherapy and Kinesiotaping group obtained a better increase in post-intervention strength (mean of 1.1 points; 95%CI: 0.5; 1.8) on the Oxford scale. For the range of motion, the kinesiotaping and, the physiotherapy plus kinesiotaping groups achieved the greatest increase in post-intervention measurement, 22°(95%CI: 12.1; 31.9) and 15.6°(95%CI: 6.1; 25.2) respectively. In our concept, Kinesiotaping alone can be used to reduce pain and increase mobility and when used after physiotherapy as a complement, it can obtain majors results in strength and range of motion.