It appears that the addition of KT to abdominal exercises in the postnatal physiotherapy program provides greater benefit for the abdominal recovery in women with cesarean section. Further studies with larger sample sizes and long-term follow-up are needed to verify these results.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) cream phonophoresis superior to conventional US over the trigger points (TPs) in terms of improvements of pain, range of motion and disability in myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). Fifty patients (42 female, 8 male) diagnosed with MPS were included in the study. Patients were randomly assigned into two treatment groups including phonophoresis (PH) group (n = 25) and ultrasound (US) group (n = 25). PH group received EMLA cream phonophoresis (2.5 % lidocaine, 2.5 % prilocaine); US group received conventional ultrasound therapy over the all active TPs on trapezius muscle for 10 min a day for 15 sessions. Outcome measures were performed before the treatment course and at the end of a 15-session course of treatment. Student T, Mann-Whitney U, chi-square and Wilcoxon tests were used for statistical analysis. At the end of the therapy, there was statistically significant decrease in both PH group and US group in terms of number of trigger point (NTP) (p = 0.001, p = 0.029), pain intensity on movement (p = 0.001 vs. 0.002) and right/left cervical lateral ROMs (p = 0.001/p = 0.001, p = 0.009/p = 0.020) relative to baseline. The NTP decrease in PH group was significantly higher than that in US group (1.84 ± 1.46 vs. 0.72 ± 1.45; p = 0.01). Pain intensity at rest (p = 0.001) and NPDI scores (p = 0.001) were statistically improvement in only PH group. EMLA cream phonophoresis is more effective than conventional ultrasound therapy in terms of pain and associated neck disability, and it seems the complementary treatment option for MPS.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to investigate whether tramadol iontophoresis added to therapy is superior to the therapy methods alone (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), hot pack, ultrasound, and exercise therapy) in patients with knee OA. Materials and Methods: A total of 72 patients who admitted to the outpatient clinic of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation were included in this study. The diagnosis was based on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for knee OA. The patients were randomly separated into two groups. Group 1 received physical therapy and Group 2 received tramadol iontophoresis in addition to the therapy for a period of two weeks. Patients were evaluated according to pain and functional capacity assessed using visual analogue scale (VAS) and Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) before therapy and following the 10th session, and at 1 and 3 months. Results: The mean age and duration of the knee pain were 58.53±8.38, 5.00±2.66 years in the control group and 58.15±7.70, 4.71±2.70 years in the tramadol iontophoresis group. There were no significant differences between groups in the mean age and duration of the knee pain, body mass index (BMI), VAS and WOMAC scores before therapy. Following the 10th session, and after 1 and 3 months, VAS and WOMAC scores were significantly decreased in both groups when compared with the baseline values (p<0.001). VAS scores were significantly lower in the tramadol iontophoresis group compared to controls following the 10th session (p<0.001). However, no significant difference was found between WOMAC scores of the tramadol iontophoresis and control groups (p>0.05). Conclusion:We conclude that tramadol iontophoresis added to physical therapy may be useful for relieving pain of knee OA during the treatment period. (Turk J Rheumatol 2010; 25: 174-8