Журнал новых физиотерапевтических методов

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Could Hands be a New Treatment to Fibromyalgia? A Pilot Study

Juliana Silva Amaral Bruno, Daniel Marques Franco, Heloisa Ciol, Anderson Luis Zanchin, Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato and Antonio Eduardo de Aquino Junior

Fibromyalgia is a chronic disease characterized by high-intensity pains with non-articular bases, affecting women and reaching between 3% and 10% of the world population. Fibromyalgia significantly affects the quality of life of patients, and is currently treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics that ease pain crises in general. Physiologically, it is known that patients with fibromyalgia have a greater amount, in the hands, of neuroreceptors close to the blood vessels when compared to healthy patients. As a search for a non-invasive and non-drug strategy to treat fibromyalgia and based on the knowledge of the anti-inflammatory and analgesic action of ultrasound and laser as forms of treatment in physiotherapy, we sought to evaluate in this study the response of patients with diagnosis (a prototype that associates both techniques simultaneously), using two treatment fronts: the application of the methods in tender point located in the trapezius muscle, or application of the methods in the palms of the hands of patients. The evaluation was based on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) protocols. The results showed that the treatment in the palms of the hands was more effective for the three techniques used, with a significant improvement by the VAS evaluation in the ultralaser treatment. In addition, for both FIQ and VAS, the patients' response to hand treatment was better and greater in all therapeutic methods applied. Thus, this pilot study allowed to compare the responses to treatments for fibromyalgia using conventional methods and ultralaser treatment, both at the tender point and when applied to the palms of the hands, showing a new therapeutic option to improve the quality of life of patients. The use of laser and ultrasound has a fundamental role in analgesic and anti-inflammatory action in physiotherapeutic treatments.