Effects of exercise and Kinesio taping on abdominal recovery in women with cesarean section: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: Abdominal muscle strength decreases and fat ratio in the waist region increases following cesarean section. Kinesio taping (KT) is an easily applicable method and stimulates muscle activation. The aim of this pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to investigate the effects of KT combined with exercise in women with cesarean section on abdominal recovery compared to the exercise alone. METHODS: Twenty-four women in between the fourth and sixth postnatal months who had cesarean section were randomly assigned to KT + exercise (n = 12) group or exercise group (n = 12). KT was applied twice a week for 4 weeks on rectus abdominis, oblique abdominal muscles and cesarean incision. All women were instructed to carry out posterior pelvic tilt, core stabilization and abdominal correction exercises. Outcome measures were evaluated with the manual muscle test, sit-up test, abdominal endurance test, Visual Analog Scale (VAS), circumference measurements and Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ). Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon tests were used to analyze data. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: The improvement observed in the KT + exercise group was significantly greater compared to the exercise group in terms of the strength of the rectus abdominis muscle, sit-up test, VAS, measurements of the waist circumference and RMDQ (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It appears that the addition of KT to abdominal exercises in the postnatal physiotherapy program provides greater benefit for the abdominal recovery in women with cesarean section. Further studies with larger sample sizes and long-term follow-up are needed to verify these results.

Efficacy of EMLA cream phonophoresis comparison with ultrasound therapy on myofascial pain syndrome of the trapezius: a single-blind, randomized clinical study.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) cream phonophoresis superior to conventional US over the trigger points (TPs) in terms of improvements of pain, range of motion and disability in myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). Fifty patients (42 female, 8 male) diagnosed with MPS were included in the study. Patients were randomly assigned into two treatment groups including phonophoresis (PH) group (n = 25) and ultrasound (US) group (n = 25). PH group received EMLA cream phonophoresis (2.5 % lidocaine, 2.5 % prilocaine); US group received conventional ultrasound therapy over the all active TPs on trapezius muscle for 10 min a day for 15 sessions. Outcome measures were performed before the treatment course and at the end of a 15-session course of treatment. Student T, Mann-Whitney U, chi-square and Wilcoxon tests were used for statistical analysis. At the end of the therapy, there was statistically significant decrease in both PH group and US group in terms of number of trigger point (NTP) (p = 0.001, p = 0.029), pain intensity on movement (p = 0.001 vs. 0.002) and right/left cervical lateral ROMs (p = 0.001/p = 0.001, p = 0.009/p = 0.020) relative to baseline. The NTP decrease in PH group was significantly higher than that in US group (1.84 ± 1.46 vs. 0.72 ± 1.45; p = 0.01). Pain intensity at rest (p = 0.001) and NPDI scores (p = 0.001) were statistically improvement in only PH group. EMLA cream phonophoresis is more effective than conventional ultrasound therapy in terms of pain and associated neck disability, and it seems the complementary treatment option for MPS.