Which Treatment is More Effective in Myofascial Pain Syndrome? Local Anesthetic Injection or Kinesio Taping?

Abstract

Objective: To investigate effectiveness of local anesthetic injection and kinesio taping in patients with myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). Material and Methods: Fifty-five patients, who were diagnosed with MPS at our outpatient clinic were randomly assigned into two groups, local injection group (LIG) (n=28) received local anesthetic (1ml 2% prilocain) injection and kinesio taping group (KTG) (n=27) received kinesio taping.Two participants in the LIG and one participant in the KTG did not come for follow-up examinations. Fifty-two patients were analyzed. All patients were evaluated at baseline, 1st, 3rd, 6th weeks after treatment using Visual analogue scale (VAS), Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and Beck depression inventory (BDI). Results: Both groups' VAS pain, VAS fatigue, VAS limitations in daily living activities (p<0.001, p=0.005; p<0.001, p=0.014; p=0.017, p=0.485; respectively LIG, KTG) were significantly decreased and value of algometric pressure (p<0.001, p<0.001; respectively LIG, KTG) were significantly increased. The decrease in all these values were higher in the group of local anesthetics (p=0.001, p=0.003, p=0.005; respectively). No changes were determined in the BDI and the NHP values after treatment (p>0.05, p>0.05; respectively). Conclusion: These findings suggest that kinesio taping is a good treatment alternative being a non-invasive and easy appliable procedure in MPS therapy, also the use of both treatments may be appropriate. Further studies are needed using kinesiotaping in the treatment of MPS.