A Comparative Study between the Efficacy of Therapeutic Ultrasound and Soft Tissue Massage (Deep Friction Massage) in Supraspinatus Tendinitis

Supraspinatus tendinitis is the common condition faced by general population. In clinical setting it is treated by conservative management and Physiotherapy. Ultrasound (US) and Deep Friction Massage (DFM) is one of the treatment approaches.

To study the effectiveness of US and DFM treatment and to compare them over the period of 10 days.

40 subjects with Supraspinatus tendinitis were randomly assigned to US or DFM treatment group. US group received 6– 8min of pulsed US at 0.6 w/cm², with 1 MHz frequency, every day for 10 days. DFM group received 10– 12min of DFM in transverse direction with tip of the index finger re-enforced by middle finger, every day for 10 days. Subjects were evaluated for Pain with VAS and Shoulder Abduction AROM at the start and end of the treatment of 1st, 5th and 10th day. Student t- test was used to analyze data.

At the end of 10 days of treatment, both the groups showed significant improvement in pain on VAS (US = 3.55, DFM = 4.40) and in shoulder Abduction AROM (US = 25.95 degrees, DFM = 32.65 degrees). But when they both were compared, DFM showed significant improvement over US in pain on VAS (p = 0.014) and Shoulder Abduction AROM (p = 0.023).

We concluded that both the interventions reduce pain and increase Abduction AROM but DFM has slight edge over US.