Randomized Clinical Trial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jul 18, 2023; 14(7): 572-581
Published online Jul 18, 2023. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v14.i7.572
Instrumented assisted soft tissue mobilization vs extracorporeal shock wave therapy in treatment of myofascial pain syndrome
Nourhan Elsayed Shamseldeen, Mohammed Moustafa Aldosouki Hegazy, Nadia Abdalazeem Fayaz, Nesreen Fawzy Mahmoud
Nourhan Elsayed Shamseldeen, Mohammed Moustafa Aldosouki Hegazy, Nadia Abdalazeem Fayaz, Nesreen Fawzy Mahmoud, Department of Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Disorders & Its Surgery, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, Cairo 14531, Egypt
Author contributions: Shamseldeen NE and Hegazy MMA were responsible for the study conception and design; Shamseldeen NE performed the trial procedure and drafted the manuscript; Hegazy MMA revised the manuscript; Fayaz NA reviewed the design, supervised the process of research, and approved the final version to be published; Mahmoud NF supervised the process of research, helped in writing the discussion, and was responsible for the final revision; All authors approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Physical Therapy (P.T.REC/012/003180).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at Department of Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Disorders & Its Surgery, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided an informed consent statement before enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nesreen Fawzy Mahmoud, MSc, PhD, Lecturer, Physiotherapist, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Disorders & Its Surgery, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, Dokki, Giza, Cairo 14531, Egypt. dr_nesreenfawzy@cu.edu.eg
Received: January 9, 2023
Peer-review started: January 9, 2023
First decision: April 26, 2023
Revised: May 10, 2023
Accepted: May 31, 2023
Article in press: May 31, 2023
Published online: July 18, 2023
Core Tip

Core Tip: This is the first study to compare the effects of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) vs extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on trigger points of the upper trapezius muscle in myofascial pain syndrome. The results of the current study revealed no statistically significant differences between the effect of IASTM and ESWT on pain intensity and pain pressure threshold of upper trapezius muscle trigger points. However, both IASTM and ESWT improved pain measures in both groups of patients suffering from myofascial pain syndrome. Based on these results, treatment methods can be selected based on availability, cost, therapist experience, and patient preference.