Efficacy of Capacitive-Resistive Therapy on the Treatment of Neck/Upper Trapezius Myofascial Pain: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a painful musculoskeletal condition affecting the individuals' daily life presenting with muscle spasm, referred pain patterns, stiffness, restricted range of motion caused by trigger points. Capacitive-resistive diathermy therapy heats deep tissues by transferring energy through radiofrequency waves. Currently, although this modality is used to treat various acute or chronic musculoskeletal disorders, there is no specific data about myofascial trigger points in the literature. The investigators aimed to evaluate the efficacy of capacitive-resistive diathermy on the myofascial trigger point of neck/upper trapezius muscle area compared with the sham intervention of capacitive-resistive diathermy.

Volunteers with active myofascial trigger points in the upper trapezius and neck were included the study after being examined by sports medicine specialists. Exclusion criteria were fibromyalgia, discal hernia, radiculopathy, myelopathy, having received trigger point injection and physical therapy within the last 1 month, neck or back surgery, rheumatismal diseases, pregnancy. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups. Group 1 will be treated with capacitive resistive diathermy and exercise. Group 2 will be treated with placebo (sham) capacitive-resistive diathermy and exercise for 10 sessions at intervals of 24-48 hours. Visual analog scale (VAS), neck disability index (NDI) score, cervical range of motion (cROM), active trigger point numbers will be evaluated before and after treatment. The study was designed as a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind trial. The study was approved by the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine Ethics Committee. All participants were informed of the study and signed written informed consent.