The Comparison of The Effectiveness of Physical And Electrotherapy Modalities Versus Home Exercises Program on Frozen Shoulder

Aim: In addition to exercise, physical and electrotherapy modalities such as hotpack, ultrasound and TENS is often applied on frozen shoulder rehabilitation in clinics. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of electrotherapy modalities versus home exercises program in addition to standard physical therapy in both groups on frozen shoulder rehabilitation. Methods: 24 patients diagnosed with frozen shoulder were included in this study. Patients were randomly assigned to Group I (Standard program + electrotherapy, n = 12) and Group II (standard program + home exercise program, n = 12). Standard program consisted of shoulder joint mobilization and shoulder muscles.stretching and strengthening exercises (30 minutes). In addition to this program, Group 1 received Hotpack, ultrasound and TENS for 30 minutes. Group II was given a 30-minute home program including Wand exercises, isometric strengthening and self stretching exercises in addition to standart program. Treatment was applied five day a week for 3 weeks. Patients level of pain, functional state, level of depression and sleep quality evaluated before and after treatment by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) respectively. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 software. The intra-group variations were analyzed using Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test, while inter-group comparisons were drawn using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Result: Study was completed total 22 patients (mean age: 55.2 ± 10.4 years; BMI = 27.7 ± 3.9 kg / m2, 15 women) Group I (n = 12) and Group II (n = 10). VAS-resting (p = 0.011; p = 0.015), VAS-activity (p = 0.005; p = 0.002), BDI (p = 0.012; p = 0.004) and the DASH (p = 0.005 and p = 0004) found a statistically significant improvement in both intra-group change. VAS-night (p = 0.039) and sleep quality (p = 0.047) was found a significant improvement only in Group I. But there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in any parameter (p> 0.05). Conclusion: However VAS-night and sleep quality improved in electrotherapy in terms of intra group change, there was no significant difference between the groups in any parameter. Therefore, we believe that the choice of home exercise program applied in addition to the exercise programwould be more advantageous in terms of cost-effectiveness and time instead of electrotherapy modalities.