NCT00884065

Effectiveness of Diacutaneous Fibrolysis in Painful Shoulder

Effectiveness of Diacutaneous Fibrolysis on Pain and Mobility in Patients Suffering From Painful Shoulder. A Randomized Pilot Study.

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (actual)
• Sponsor: Fundacio d'Investigacio en Atencio Primaria Jordi Gol i Gurina · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

While Diacutaneous fibrolysis (DF) has achieved promising results empirically, its effectiveness has not been tested in clinical trials. The investigators hypothesized that the use of DF in patients suffering from painful shoulder would increase the active mobility and reduce the pain during movement. To test the hypothesis a double blind (patient and investigator) randomized clinical trial was carried out in two public Primary Health Care Centres. Fifty patients were randomly allocated to two groups: the intervention group, who received a real DF session, and the control group, who received a placebo DF session.

Detailed description

Background and objectives: Diacutaneous fibrolysis (DF) is a manual technique to treat the mechanical pain of the musculoskeletal system. While this technique has achieved promising results empirically, its effectiveness has not been tested in clinical trials. We aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a single session of DF on pain and mobility in patients suffering from painful shoulder. Subjects and methods: This clinical trial took place in two public Primary Health Care Centres. Fifty patients were randomly allocated to two groups: the intervention group, who received a real DF session, and the control group, who received a placebo DF session. The degree of active mobility (flexion, abduction, extension, external and internal rotation), the pain in the hand behind back position and the participant's perception of the technique in terms of comfort and results obtained were measured.

Conditions

• Shoulder Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Diacutaneous Fibrolysis	The implementation of the technique consists of three consecutive stages: The first stage involves manual palpation, which is carried out by the hand that is not holding the hook, with the objective to find the area to be treated; the second, or instrumental palpation stage, is carried out by introducing the spatula of the hook together with the index finger of the palpatory hand to locate with precision the adherent connective fibers or fibrous corpuscles; the third, or fibrolysis stage, is the actual treatment. Here, a brief supplementary traction is carried out with the hook.
OTHER	Diacutaneous Fibrolysis (placebo)	The placebo was designed for this study and the stages of manual and instrumental palpation occur strictly at a superficial level. In the third stage, instead of fibrolysis a pinch of skin is hold with the thumb of the palpatory hand and the tip of the spatula, so that the patient feels the hook distinctly but without any action taking place on the deep tissular planes.

Timeline

• Start date: 2007-06-01
• Primary completion: 2008-01-01
• Completion: 2008-01-01
• First posted: 2009-04-20
• Last updated: 2015-03-23
• Results posted: 2009-04-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain