Manual Therapy with Cryotherapy More Effective than Manual Therapy with Kinesio Taping, Study Finds

A randomized trial published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine evaluated the efficacy of manual therapy combined with cryotherapy versus manual therapy combined with Kinesio Taping for males with lumbar discopathy.
The study took place in the Physiotherapy Outpatient Department of the Regional Hospital in Zywiec, Poland, and the participants were 40 males aged 30–75 with lumbar discopathy. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups: manual therapy with cryotherapy, and manual therapy with Kinesio Taping. Both groups received two treatments per week for five weeks, for a total of 10 treatments. Primary outcomes were measured using a visual analog scale and the Laitinen scale pain ratings, and the secondary outcome measured quality of life using the short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire.
The manual therapy with cryotherapy group reported significantly better scores, in both outcomes, than the manual therapy with Kinesio Tape group. Read more at www.alternative-therapies.com/abstracts/9553.html.