A manual therapy and home stretching program in patients with primary frozen shoulder contracture syndrome

Ondertitel:a case series

Background Manual therapy has been demonstrated to reduce pain and improve function in patients with frozen shoulder contracture syndrome (FSCS), but no evidence exists to support one form of manual therapy over another. The purpose of this case series was to describe both short and long-term outcomes after a manual therapy program and home stretching exercises based on specific impairments in shoulder mobility and level of tissue irritability in patients with FSCS. Case Description Eleven patients with primary FSCS were treated with an individually tailored multimodal manual therapy approach once weekly for 12 visits coupled with home stretching exercises once a day, five days per week. Pain, disability, range of motion (ROM) and muscle strength of the affected shoulder were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, 6-months and 9-months. Outcomes Significant improvements in self-reported pain, disability, shoulder ROM (active abduction and active abduction with overpressure, active external rotation and active external rotation with overpressure and isolated glenohumeral active abduction) and strength (shoulder flexion and internal rotation) were reported following treatment with impairment- and tissue irritability- based manual physical therapy and stretching exercises. Additionally, 4 of 11 of the patients showed pain improvements exceeding the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) on visual analogue scale (VAS) post-intervention and 8 of 11 on VAS at 6 and 9-months. Moreover, 7 of 11 of the patients showed improvements in Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire scores exceeding the MCID post-intervention and at 6-months, and 8 of 11 exceeded the MCID at 9-months. Discussion Clinically meaningful changes in shoulder pain and disability, ROM, or muscle strength were observed in eleven patients with primary FSCS treated with an individually tailored approach of both manual therapy techniques and stretching exercises, while accounting for tissue irritability. Randomized controlled trials are required to determine the effectiveness of this multimodal approach for the management of individuals with FSCS.

Jaar van publicatie:2019

Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:10

CSS-citation score:1

Auteurs:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Closed