The effect of combined exercise with slings and a flexi-bar on muscle activity and pain in rotator cuff repair patients.
Jae-Woon Kim, Yong-Nam Kim, Dong-Kyu Lee
PMID 27821956WHAT IT FOUND
After rotator cuff repair, adding sling and Flexi-Bar exercise to TENS and continuous passive motion reduced pain more, lowered upper trapezius activity more, and raised lower trapezius, infraspinatus and serratus anterior activity more.
The added exercise cannot be separated into sling or Flexi-Bar parts.
Key findings
01Pain scores fell from 7.1 to 2.7 in the experimental group and from 7.4 to 4.4 in the control group.
02Upper trapezius activity fell from 1,261.1 to 984.5 in the experimental group and from 1,261.2 to 1,177.3 in the control group.
03Lower trapezius, infraspinatus, and serratus anterior activity increased more in the experimental group than in the control group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only 20 participants, so the findings may not apply to all rotator cuff repair patients. The treatment period was short, and the paper says this was due to the patients' hospitalization period. There was no follow up, so it is unknown how long any effect lasted. The experimental group received sling and Flexi-Bar exercise together, so the contribution of either component alone cannot be separated. Both groups received TENS and continuous passive motion, so the comparison is with a standard treatment, not with no treatment.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that sling exercise or Flexi-Bar exercise alone produced the pain and muscle changes. The added intervention was a combined sling and Flexi-Bar program, and both groups also received TENS and continuous passive motion.