Posterior thigh thermal skin adaptations to radiofrequency treatment at 448 kHz applied with or without Indiba® fascia treatment tools.
Konstantinos Fousekis, Georgios Chrysanthopoulos, Maria Tsekoura and 6 others
PMID 32273653WHAT IT FOUND
Radiofrequency warmed the posterior thigh skin after 15 minutes in healthy men.
Adding fascia-tool strokes did not make the immediate warming greater, but it kept warmth for 164.2 minutes after treatment instead of 54.8 minutes.
Key findings
01Both active radiofrequency methods raised posterior thigh skin temperature by 10.6% or 10.7% after 15 minutes, with no significant difference between them.
02Indiba Fascia kept elevated posterior thigh skin temperature for 164.2 minutes, compared with 54.8 minutes for Indiba Activ.
03Manual placebo treatments without radiofrequency did not produce comparable warming: Indiba Activ placebo decreased temperature by 1.8%, and Indiba Fascia placebo increased it by 0.04%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 10 healthy young men were studied, so the result may not apply to older adults, women, or people with pain or injury. The outcome was superficial skin temperature only, not deeper tissue temperature, pain, function, range of motion, or healing. Participants were blinded, but the therapist delivering treatment was not blinded, and no assessor blinding is reported. The sample was small, and the authors themselves say the limitations prevent firm conclusions. The study did not compare this approach with other therapies or follow participants long enough to show clinical benefit.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The paper does not report funding. The treatments used commercial Indiba equipment and manufacturer-suggested fascial techniques.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that fascia-tool radiofrequency is clinically superior because it kept warmth longer. The study measured only surface skin temperature in 10 healthy young men, and no pain, function, or healing outcomes were tested.