High and Low Laser for Subacromial Impingement Syndrome

Cairo University (CU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Subacromial Impingement Syndrome

Treatments: Other: high intensity laser in addition to traditional physical therapy exercises; Other: low level laser in addition to traditional physical therapy exercises; Other: traditional physical therapy exercises

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04784377

Laser and impingement syndrome

Details and patient eligibility

About

Shoulder pain is the third most common musculoskeletal problem after lumbar and neck diseases in clinical practice, and the most common cause of shoulder pain is subacromial impingement syndrome. The main goal of treatment is to reduce pain and to solve the mechanical problem that causes functional impairment. Low-level laser treatment is an increasingly used treatment modality in the treatment of subacromial impingement syndrome as in many musculoskeletal diseases, as it promotes cell proliferation and tissue regeneration by its anti-inflammatory and photobiostimulation properties. Also, High-intensity laser therapy is a treatment method that is gaining popularity in the recent years. These ultra-short impulses effect a deep action in the biological tissue (3-4 cm), with a homogeneous distribution of the light source in the irradiated soft tissue, but without excessive thermal enhancements. It reduces pain and edema with photomechanic effects in deep tissues. As far as the investigators know, there are no studies comparing these two treatment modalities in subacromial impingement syndrome yet. This study was planned to compare the efficacy of High-intensity laser therapy and low-intensity laser therapy in treatment of patients with subacromial impingement syndrome.

Enrollment: 42 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 25 to 45 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• shoulder pain for at least one month
• male and female patients with age range from 25-45 years old
• positive impingement test results
• stage I or II disease according to the Neer classification, confirmed by MRI
• visual analog scale score greater than 40 mm.

Exclusion criteria

patients will be excluded if they have:

• major trauma to the shoulder
• stage III subacromial impingement syndrome
• diabetes mellitus
• hypothyroidism
• calcific tendinitis
• adhesive capsulitis (forward flexion less than 160, horizontal abduction less than 160
• installation of cardiac pacemaker
• history of a physical therapy program for the same shoulder in the last 6 months.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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42 participants in 3 patient groups

High laser group

Experimental group

Treatment:

Other: high intensity laser in addition to traditional physical therapy exercises

low laser group

Experimental group

Treatment:

Other: low level laser in addition to traditional physical therapy exercises

control group

Other group

Treatment:

Other: traditional physical therapy exercises