Treatment of Myofascial Pain Syndrome With Lidocaine Injection and Physical Therapy.
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-09-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Background: Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) of the shoulder girdle and cervical region is a
common musculoskeletal problem that is often chronic or recurrent. It has demonstrated the
effectiveness of different treatments such as exercise, injection but not comparing them with
each other. The objective of this research was to demonstrate whether lidocaine injection
into trigger points combined with a physical therapy program was more effective than each
separatetreatment in improving pain, function and quality of life in a group of patients with
myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) of the shoulder girdle and cervical region.
Design: Single-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial with three parallel groups in the
departments of physical medicine and rehabilitation of two urban hospitals. There were 127
patients with myofascial pain in the shoulder girdle for more than six weeks in length and
pain greater than 40 mm on the visual analog scale (VAS). There were three intervention
groups: physical therapy (PT), lidocaine injection (LI), or the combination of both (PT +
LI). The primary outcome at one month was the VAS, and the secondary outcomes were measured
using the SF36 pain scaleat one and three months.
Keywords: Myofascial pain, trigger points, lidocaine injection, physical therapy.