Protocols for physiotherapic treatment of pain due to shoulder tendinopathies

Abstract

This work presents a study on the physiotherapeutic treatment of shoulder and elbow pain due to tendinopathy. Three experimental protocols have been used: transcutaneous electrostimulation (TENS), therapheutic ultrasound (US) and cryotherapy. Twelve volunteers (2 men and 10 women; 57.25 ± 12.04 years old) participated in the study, which had ten therapeutic sessions. The volunteers were allocated to 3 groups: Group A (TENS); Group B (US associated with cryotherapy); and Group C (TENS, US and cryotherapy). The goal was to compare qualitatively and quantitatively the relief of the tendinitis-related pain, before and after the treatment. The pain has been assessed by a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and by the SF-36 questionnaire. The resulting scores from these questionnaires, before and after treatment, were compared. The preliminary results suggest that the three treatments led to pain reduction, but the sample size do not allow for statistical significance yet. Therefore, further work is needed, with the increase of the number of subjects, in order to get a clearer picture.