Effects of manual therapy on shoulder pain in office workers.
Seong-Uk Go, Byoung-Hee Lee
PMID 27799661WHAT IT FOUND
In 38 office workers with shoulder and neck pain, manual therapy and shoulder stabilization exercises both made muscles less sensitive to pressure after 6 weeks.
Manual therapy had larger gains in some muscles, but both groups improved.
Key findings
01Both manual therapy and scapular stabilization exercise significantly increased pressure pain thresholds in the splenius capitis and trapezius muscles after 6 weeks.
02Manual therapy showed greater improvement than scapular stabilization exercise for pressure pain threshold in the right splenius capitis, left upper trapezius, middle trapezius on both sides, and right lower trapezius.
03The manual therapy group received soft-tissue mobilization, prone thoracic mobilization, prone selected thoracic mobilization, cervical mobilization, and thoracic manipulation, so the contribution of any single technique cannot be separated.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This was a small single-center trial of 38 office workers, so the results may not apply to other people with shoulder or neck pain. The paper does not report dropouts or how missing data were handled, although it describes 19 subjects in each group. The paper does not report participant, therapist, or assessor blinding. The outcome was pressure pain threshold, not patient-reported pain, disability, function, or long-term follow-up. The manual therapy group received several techniques together, so the study cannot separate the effect of soft-tissue mobilization, prone thoracic mobilization, prone selected thoracic mobilization, cervical mobilization, or thoracic manipulation. The paper does not name a primary outcome, and the text and table disagree about the left splenius capitis. The text reports greater manual therapy change, but the table shows 3.69 kg/cm2 for manual therapy and 3.89 kg/cm2 for exercise.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding declaration is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that manual therapy is better than exercise for shoulder pain. Both groups improved, only some muscles showed greater manual therapy change, and the manual therapy group received several techniques together, so no single technique was tested.