Effectiveness of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation pattern on upper extremity and scapula along with conventional physiotherapy in patients with adhesive capsulitis

Abstract

Background: Adhesive capsulitis is one of the shoulder pathologies which related with pain and active shoulder movements and finally progressive limitation of passive movements. It causes stiffness and pain due to internal and undesirable deformation. Nowadays it’s been a common and major problem in our country and where proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation exercise seems to be an effective treatment. Objective: The main objective of the study is to investigate or discover the effectiveness of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation pattern of upper extremity and scapula along with conventional physiotherapy for the patients with adhesive capsulitis. Methodology: The randomized controlled trial design was used to conduct this study. Total 80 samples were selected conveniently from outpatient treatment service of Musculoskeletal Unit, Physiotherapy Department, Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), Savar, Dhaka and then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups for pretest and posttest data. Structured questionnaire was used to assess the socio-demographic and other information of the participants. Pre-test data was collected before beginning of the treatment. The same procedure was performed to collect post-test data at the end of 4 weeks of intervention. Total treatment sessions were 2 sessions per week for 4 weeks. Outcome measurement tools: Numerical pain rating scale (NPRS) was used to measure pain and universal goniometer to measure ROM, Shoulder pain and disability index (SPADI) to measure functional performance. Analysis of data: Inferential statistics such as Mann-Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon test was done using SPSS version 25. Result: It was found that pain and functional inability had reduced and ROM had improved significantly in both between and within group (P<.05) except shoulder abduction (P = 0.093). Conclusion: Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) pattern along with conventional physiotherapy has the ability to improve the effects on shoulder than only conventional physiotherapy in patients with adhesive capsulitis. This exercise proved beneficial when combined with conventional physiotherapy to minimize disability level and prevent recurrence, reduction of pain and improvement of range of motion. Keywords: Adhesive capsulitis, Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) pattern, Conventional physiotherapy.