Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy

BACKGROUND: Stiffness is a common complication following trauma and surgeries around the elbow, which can result in upper limb functional disabilities. Soft tissue mobilization techniques such as Instrument-assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) and Muscle Energy Technique (MET) have limited evidence in elbow rehabilitation. This study aimed to compare their effects on postoperative elbow stiffness. METHODOLOGY: 26 subjects were recruited (13 each group) with postoperative elbow stiffness (minimum 6 weeks post surgery) and randomly allocated in two groups: IASTM and MET...

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BACKGROUND: Long-term effectiveness of physiotherapy (PT) for low back pain (LBP) depends on the adherence of patients. Objectives: (1) Identify aspects associated with the adherence of patients with LBP to physiotherapy, and (2) identify factors to facilitate adherence of patients with LBP to PT. METHOD: Focus group interviews were conducted with 10 patients with LBP ( n  = 10, 5 women) and 11 physiotherapists (5 women) from Germany and Switzerland, treating patients with LBP...

OBJECTIVE: To establish priority gaps related to contextual factors (CFs) research and force-based manipulation (FBM). METHODS: A three-round Delphi following recommended guidelines for conducting and reporting Delphi studies (CREDES) involving international and interdisciplinary panelists with expertise in CFs and FBM. Round 1 was structured around two prompting questions created by the workgroup. Ranking of each priority gap was done by calculating composite scores for each theme generated...

BACKGROUND: Ankle sprains are a commonly occurring musculoskeletal injury potentially resulting in persistent pain and/or altered motion. Thrust manipulation may serve as an interventional strategy but limited evidence exists on the mechanism(s) by which a change to symptoms might occur. OBJECTIVE: The study sought to quantify the immediate effect of a thrust manipulation to the ankle to determine a mechanism by which change to symptoms occurred. METHODS: Eleven participants (6 m/5f, 26...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this systematic review was to update the current level of evidence for spinal manipulation in influencing various biochemical markers in healthy and/or symptomatic population. METHODS: This is a systematic review update. Various databases were searched (inception till May 2023) and fifteen trials (737 participants) that met the inclusion criteria were included in the review. Two authors independently screened, extracted and assessed the risk of bias in included studies...

BACKGROUND: Neck pain is a common complaint among migraineurs possibly due to the anatomic connections between cervical and trigeminal afferents in the trigeminocervical complex (TCC). Manual therapy (MT) is used in the management of headache disorders, with demonstrable neurophysiological effects. The blink reflex (BR) is one method of analyzing neurophysiological effects in headache patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of upper cervical spine MT on BR in subjects with migraine and neck pain...

OBJECTIVES: Cervical arterial dissection (CAD) is an important cause of stroke in young people which may be missed because early features may mimic migraine or a musculoskeletal presentation. The study aimed to develop a diagnostic support tool for early identification of CAD. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTING: Tertiary hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Radiologically confirmed CAD cases ( n  = 37), non-CAD stroke cases ( n  = 20), and healthy controls ( n  = 100)...

BACKGROUND: Trunk muscles' function and characteristics are of great importance for both static and dynamic tasks in different sports, and abnormalities of trunk flexors and extensors might be associated with low back pain (LBP). The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the functional, morphological and contractile properties in trunk flexors and extensors of young gymnasts with and without LBP. METHODS: Young gymnasts (14/25 females, 14-18 y) were screened for the presence of chronic LBP...

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine reliability of sagittal plane range of motion (ROM) assessment in a healthy population and in people with cervicogenic headache (CGH). METHODS: Upper cervical flexion/extension ROM was measured using an iPhone magnetometer sensor and retraction/protraction ROM measured by linear displacement. Two independent raters evaluated these movements in 33 subjects with CGH and 33 age and gender matched asymptomatic healthy controls on two occasions...

OBJECTIVES: To perform a 'trustworthy' systematic review (SR) with meta-analysis on the potential mechanisms of manual therapy used to treat spinal impairments. DESIGN: SR with meta-analysis. LITERATURE SEARCH: Articles published between January 2010 and October 2022 from CENTRAL, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, ProQuest, and PEDro. METHODS: This SR included English-language randomized clinical trials (RCTs) involving manual therapy to treat spinal impairments in adults...

OBJECTIVES: The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using ultrasound to verify the placement of narrow-gauge dry needles within the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles utilizing palpation-based dry needle techniques. METHODS: This is a prospective observational study with 10 participants recruited. Each participant had a dry needle placed within the infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles by a trained physical therapist utilizing palpation-based methods...

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Physical therapists (PTs) working in primary care settings commonly encounter mechanical causes of knee pain. Non-mechanical causes of knee pain, such as bone tumors, are rare, and therefore, PTs often have a low index of suspicion regarding sinister pathology. The purpose of this case report is to describe the physical therapist's clinical reasoning process for a 33-year-old female presenting with medial knee pain and a subsequent history of metastatic melanoma. Initially, subjective and objective testing pointed to a mechanical internal derangement of the knee...

BACKGROUNDS: Tension-Type Headache (TTH) is one of the most common types of headache. In patients with TTH, manual therapy can be used to treat myofascial pain. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of manual therapy on TTH in patients who did not respond to drug therapy. METHODS: A total of 24 patients with TTH were randomly enrolled into this prospective trial. The participants were divided into an intervention and a control group...

INTRODUCTION: Thoracic manipulative therapy (TMT) is recommended for treating patients with mechanical neck pain (MNP). However, there are multiple proposed recommendations for the mechanism for neck pain reduction. OBJECTIVE: To investigate displacement of the cervicothoracic spine during the application of TMT in patients with MNP. METHODS: Thirty-five male patients with MNP were recruited. Displacements of C3 , C5 , C7 , T2 , T4 and T6 were measured using a motion capture system while a therapist applied a grade III central posteroanterior TMT (cpa-TMT) to T6 ...

OBJECTIVES: The use of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) has been documented to be effective for improving pain and function, but it is unclear whether it helps improve muscle performance in musculoskeletal diseases. This study investigated the effects of IASTM combined with exercise therapy on muscle endurance and pain intensity in patients with chronic neck pain. METHODS: Forty-eight individuals with chronic neck pain were randomly divided into exercise therapy (ET, n  = 24) and combined therapy (CT, n  = 24) groups...

PURPOSES: To compare the effectiveness of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) and pressure algometry with sham ultrasound (control group) on the clinical measures of headache, pressure pain threshold (PPT) of upper trapezius and suboccipital muscles and cervical alignment in patients with tension type headache (TTH). METHODS: Seventy-two patients with TTH of both genders were randomly allocated to 3 experimental groups: a) the IASTM group (n=24), b) pressure algometry group (n=24), and c) sham ultrasound control group (n=24)...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the Structural Diagnosis and Management (SDM) approach with Myofascial Release (MFR) in improving plantar heel pain, ankle range of motion, and disability. [Subjects] Sixty-four subjects, aged 30-60 years, with a diagnosis of plantar heel pain, plantar fasciitis, or calcaneal spur by a physician according to ICD-10, were equally allocated to the MFR ( n  = 32) and SDM ( n  = 32) groups by hospital randomization and concealed allocation...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.