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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Study Spotlight: Treatment Outcomes of Myofascial Decompression on Hamstring Pathology

By: Joel Luedke

Myofasical decompression or cup therapy ('cupping' for short) has been around for thousands and thousands of years dating back to China.  I've found that when something seems to be around that long, even if it falls out of popularity, it does work and thats why it gets continued use.  This one can make people a little uncomfortable and unfortunately the marks remain but there is not denying the fact that it works and well.

This is actually a master's thesis done by a graduate student that I worked with at OSU.  We also wanted to share this one as Holly Hanson of Hands on Health and was recently on Clinically Pressed and uses Cup Therapy.  Check out everything below and in this episode.

What They Did:
A group of athletes with hamstring pathology were treated using either myofascial decompression or hot pack and self treatment on a foam roller.

What They Found:
Both groups found significant increases in range of motion.  There was no significant differences when range of motion was compared.  However the patient perception was significantly effected in the myofascial decompression treatment group, in that they felt better.

What It All Means:
So long story short is that either type of modality you apply can be effective in gaining range of motion which is great but that isn't the whole story.  The perception part that was found in this study is the key in that patients felt better after the cup therapy.  I talk a lot with my students about the science of treating patients and that it is a must for what we do, keep it evidence based.  But at the same time there is an 'art' side to it.  If we can yield the same results from different modalities but one is able to get someone feeling 'better' that is a huge win for us as clinicians as it is going to allow them to feel like they improved and that can translate into faster healing times.

I look forward to more research coming out on this modality.

Reference:
Lacross, Z. Treatment outcomes of myofascial decompression on hamstring pathology.  Master's Thesis. May, 2014.

1 comment:

George said...

It's a nice research on Myofascial decompression.