Randomised controlled trial for evaluation of an ultrasound-guided palpation intervention for palpation skill training

Abstract

Although there are increasing reports on the usefulness of sonopalpation with ultrasound imaging, many previous studies have reported interventions without a control group. This single-blind, parallel-group randomised controlled trial aimed to determine whether educational instruction with sonopalpation for physical therapy students has a more superior effect on skill improvement than traditional instruction without ultrasonography. Twenty-nine physical therapy students participated in the study and were randomised using block randomisation into an ultrasound imaging group (n = 15) and a control group (n = 14). Subsequently, they underwent three training sessions focusing on the shoulder joint. Participants underwent a scoring assessment of their palpation skills at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up 3 months after training. The raters were blinded to the subjects’ group. The Friedman and Mann–Whitney U tests were used for data analysis. The intervention group showed a significant increase in scores at post-intervention and the 3-month follow-up; the effect sizes were large (0.849 and 0.849, respectively). A comparison of the scores at different time points after the intervention at the 3-month follow-up revealed no significant difference between the groups. Education using ultrasound imaging may be non-inferior to education without it; nevertheless, further studies are needed to demonstrate superiority.