Immediate effects of Tuina techniques on working-related musculoskeletal disorder of professional orchestra musicians

摘要

BACKGROUND: Musicians are a prone group to suffer from working-related musculoskeletal disorder(WRMD). Conventional solutions to control musculoskeletal pain include pharmacological treatment andrehabilitation programs but their efficiency is sometimes disappointing.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research is to study the immediate effects of Tuina techniques on WRMDof professional orchestra musicians from the north of Portugal.DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: We performed a prospective, controlled,single-blinded, randomized study. Professional orchestra musicians with a diagnosis of WRMD wererandomly distributed into the experimental group (n=39) and the control group (n=30). During anindividual interview, Chinese diagnosis took place and treatment points were chosen. Real acupointswere treated by Tuina techniques into the experimental group and non-specific skin points were treatedinto the control group. Pain was measured by verbal numerical scale before and immediately afterintervention.RESULTS: After one treatment session, pain was reduced in 91.8% of the cases for the experimentalgroup and 7.9% for the control group.CONCLUSION: Although results showed that Tuina techniques are effectively reducing WRMDin professional orchestra musicians of the north of Portugal, further investigations with strongermeasurements, double-blinding designs and bigger simple sizes are needed.