Effects of Active and Positional Release Techniques on Musculo-Skeletal Disorders: A Review of the Literature

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 MSc Student in Physiotherapy , Student Research Committee, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD, PT., Professor, Physiotherapy Research Centre, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD., PT., Professor, Physiotherapy Research Centre, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 PhD in Biostatistics, Professor, Physiotherapy Research Centre, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: Prolonged bad postures or traumas following accidents or sports injuries may result in soft tissue damage. A variety of treatment protocols including medical, surgical, and physical treatments comprising electrical, manual, and exercise therapies are routinely used for this purpose. Soft tissue releases including active and positional types are recently used to relieve local muscle spasms. To date, no study has been reported reviewing the findings of the researchers in this area. The current library-based study aimed to deliberately focus on this area to find out if any of these techniques is preferred to other one in soft tissue damage.
Materials and Methods: PubMed, google scholar, scopus, and sciencedirect databases were searched from 2000 to 2015 for the studies investigating the comparative effect of ART and PRT versus control group and other routine treatments. Only the papers that studied Active or Positional release techniques on patients and were written in Persian or English languages were included. Conference proceedings were excluded from the study.
Results: A total of 27 relevant papers were found: one review article, eight case reports, eight clinical trials, five pilot studies, three studies with before-after techniques, and two comparative studies.
Conclusion: The results showed that PRT and ART manual techniques can reduce pain and improve ROM, and functional activities in short time. It was also found that these techniques can be used as a non-invasive and safe treatment in treating patients in addition other physical modalities.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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The Scientific Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine
Volume 5, Issue 4
January and February 2017
Pages 290-301

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History

  • Receive Date: 02 July 2015
  • Revise Date: 12 March 2016
  • Accept Date: 04 April 2016
  • First Publish Date: 21 December 2016

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