1Sancheti Institute, College of Physiotherapy, 16, Shivaji nagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India
2Sancheti Institute of Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation, Shivaji nagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India, Indian Orthopaedic Research Group, Thane, Maharashtra, India
Physical therapy is the most important part of conservative treatment of frozen shoulder. Both Maitland and Mulligan's techniques have been found effective. We here did a comparative study to find the effectiveness of both these techniques in frozen shoulder rehabilitation
A prospective randomized double blind study was performed with 20 patients in each treatment arm. In Maitland group mean age was 59.2 (±7.18) years (7 males and 13 females) and in the Mulligan group the average age was 51.15 (±8.53) years (12 males and 8 females). We compared the two groups with respect to pain VAS, shoulder range of motion and Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) score.
All the parameters, pain VAS, SPADI score and shoulder range of motion improved significantly for the entire group. In Maitland group, pain improved from 7.35 to 4.05, SPADI improved from 52 to 40 and all range of motion except extension and internal rotation were significantly improved (p<0.05). In Mulligan's group, pain improved from 5.85 to 3.6, SPADI improved from 52 to 42 and all ranges except internal rotation improved significantly.
Both the treatment techniques i.e. Maitland and Mulligan are improve the pain VAS score, but response to Mulligan's was better. Mulligan mobilization technique is better than Maitland in terms of improvement in the range of extension while remaining ranges were similarly improved by both techniques. Studies of larger sample size, with a longer intervention period are needed to confirm our findings
