Zeitschrift für neuartige Physiotherapien

Abstrakt

Personalized Therapeutic Ultrasound in Shoulder Disease: Multimodal Assessment and Results

Elisa Lioce, Guiot C, Bistolfi A, Novello M and Massazza G

Introduction: Therapeutic ultrasound (US) has been used in physiotherapy for more than 50 years to treat acute and chronic inflammatory diseases in joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and so on. Despite of its widespread use in rehabilitative practice and the large number of studies, low scientific, statistically assessed evidences of therapeutic US effectiveness are available. As a matter of fact, details about the treatment modalities and the way in which the patients’ feedback was collected are often missing. The aim of our study is to assess the therapeutic US effectiveness in shoulder disease management when a “customized” treatment to each patient is delivered and the clinical outcome is globally monitored.

Methods: Patients with shoulder pain who underwent rehabilitative treatment, including Ultrasound Therapy (US) in our Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Medicine at Turin University from May to September 2015 were enrolled. Clinical, functional and sonographycal evaluation of the shoulder was performed before US treatment (T0), and at the end of the US therapy (T1) using Numeric Rating Scale, Constant Score, DASH questionnaire and sonography.

Results: Statistically relevant improvements of the clinical outcome were observed in all the considered parameters, with a significant reduction of shoulder pain and functional limitation in all patients. Sonographic images support clinical data.

Conclusions: Although studies involving a larger number of patients are required, the effectiveness of ‘customized’ US treatment evaluated with different approaches, including sonography, is assessable and lead to statistically significant results.