Objective: More than 70 million Americans suffer from chronic pain; many cases are related to sports injuries. This type of injury often involves soft tissues (muscles, tendons, and ligaments). Direct-force injury (e.g., impact trauma) and indirect-force injury (e.g., repetitive motion) are normally the cause of strained muscles, sprained ligaments, and tendonitis. The standard of acute care is RICE [rest, ice, compression, and elevation] plus anti-inflammatory medication. While this regimen often relieves acute pain, the consequence of the long-term use is chronic pain due to un-remodeled scar-tissue formation. The goal of this article is to show how a combination of integrative modalities can be used to relieve the pain caused by such injuries and their sequelae.
Materials and methods: This article focuses on a combination of clinical modalities that integrate osteopathic cross-fiber massage, microcurrent electroacupuncture, far-infrared heat, and photobiomodulation to break up the scar tissue and reactivate the body's intrinsic repair mechanism. Chronic shoulder pain, associated with supraspinatus tendonitis is used here, to illustrate this integrative treatment in an acupuncture clinic setting.
Results: This method heals chronic pain from an injury with clinic visits, twice per week, for 3-5 weeks.
Conclusions: More clinical and research studies are recommended to validate this approach for this condition and other soft-tissue traumata.
Keywords: Ashi acupuncture; Traditional Chinese Medicine; chronic soft-tissue injury; chronic sports injury; cross-fiber massage; microcurrent electroacupuncture; photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy.
Copyright 2022, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.