No abstract available.
General Practice* ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes*

Trigger point injection treatment is an effective and widely applied treatment for myofascial pain syndrome. The trapezius muscle frequently causes myofascial pain in neck area. We herein report a case in which direct pulsed radiofrequency (RF) treatment was applied to the trapezius muscle. We observed that the RF treatment produced continuous pain relief when the effective duration of trigger point injection was temporary in myofascial pain.
Muscles ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes ; Neck ; Trigger Points

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in myofascial pain syndrome of upper trapezius with visual analogue scale (VAS) and pressure threshold by digital algometer. METHOD: Twenty-two patients diagnosed with myofascial pain syndrome in upper trapezius were selected. They were assigned to treatment and standard care (control) groups balanced by age and sex, with eleven subjects in each group. The treated group had done four sessions of ESWT (0.056 mJ/mm2, 1,000 impulses, semiweekly) while the control group was treated by the same protocol but with different energy levels applied, 0.001 mJ/mm2. The VAS and pressure threshold were measured twice: before and after last therapy. We evaluated VAS of patients and measured the pressure threshold by using algometer. RESULTS: There were two withdrawals and the remaining 20 patients were three men and 17 women. Age was distributed with 11 patients in their twenties and 9 over 30 years old. There was no significant difference of age, sex, pre-VAS and pre-pressure threshold between 2 groups (p>0.05) found. The VAS significantly decreased from 4.91+/-1.76 to 2.27+/-1.27 in the treated group (p<0.01). The control group did not show any significant changes of VAS score. The pressure threshold significantly increased from 40.4+/-9.94 N to 61.2+/-12.16 N in the treated group (p<0.05), but there was no significant change in the control group. CONCLUSION: ESWT in myofascial pain syndrome of upper trapezius is effective to relieve pain after four times therapies in two weeks. But further study will be required with more patients, a broader age range and more males.
Female ; Humans ; Male ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes ; Shock

We investigated the possible association between depression, anxiety, severity of recent stress in patients with myofascial paul, with chronic myofacial pain syndrome. On the initial visit, 30 subjects completed the following psychometiic battery Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Global Assessment of Recent Stress. As compared with the neurosis control group and the healthy control group, the results were as follows: 1) The myofascial paul group showed higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis controls, in the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. 2) The myofascial pain group showed higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis controls, in the total score of Beck Depression Inventory. 3) The myofascial pain group showed higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis controls, in the score of Global Assessment of Recent Stress. 4) In the factor analysis of Beck Depression Inventory, the myofascial pain group showed significantly higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis control in the somatic symptom subscale. However, there were no significant differences among the myofascial pain group and other control groups in the other subscales. These findings suggest that the myofacial pain group is more anxious and depressed and more preoccupied with their somatic symptoms due to their myofacial pain and more stressed in recent periods. The authors propose that the psychiatric management is helpful in intervening with the progression of myofacial pain.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Facial Neuralgia ; Facial Pain ; Humans ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes*

Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) is widely used to treat myofascial pain syndrome. IMS is a safe procedure but several complications have been described. To our knowledge, spinal subarachnoid hematoma has never been reported as a complication of an IMS. The authors have experienced a case of spinal subarachnoid hematoma occurring after an IMS, which was tentatively diagnosed as intracranial subarachnoid hemorrhage because of severe headache. Patient was successfully treated with surgery. Here, we report our case with a review of literature.
Headache ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

OBJECTIVETo investigate the current practice of myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) including current epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis and treatment.

DATA SOURCESThe data analyzed in this review were mainly from relevant articles without restriction on the publication date reported in PubMed, MedSci, Google scholar. The terms "myofasial trigger points" and "myofacial pain syndrome" were used for the literature search.

STUDY SELECTIONOriginal articles with no limitation of research design and critical reviews containing data relevant to myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) and MPS were retrieved, reviewed, analyzed and summarized.

RESULTSMyofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is characterized by painful taut band, referred pain, and local response twitch with a prevalence of 85% to 95% of incidence. Several factors link to the etiology of MTrPs, such as the chronic injury and overload of muscles. Other factors, such as certain nutrient and hormone insufficiency, comorbidities, and muscle imbalance may also maintain the MTrP in an active status and induce recurrent pain. The current pathology is that an extra leakage acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction induces persistent contracture knots, relative to some hypotheses of integration, muscle spindle discharges, spinal segment sensitization, ect. MTrPs can be diagnosed and localized based on a few subjective criteria. Several approaches, including both direct and supplementary treatments, can inactivate MTrPs. Direct treatments are categorized into invasive and conservative.

CONCLUSIONThis review provides a clear understanding of MTrP pain and introduces the most useful treatment approaches in China.

PURPOSE: This research was for checking the effect of meridian massage on the reduction of pain and subjective symptoms of myofascial pain syndrome. METHOD: The method of the research was interruptive time series design. The research objects are 25 hospital workers with myofascial pain syndrome at B hospital in Busan from July 22. 2002 to August 18, 2002. SPSS Win 10.0 was used for data analysis, paired t-test and repeated measures ANOVA for hypothesis test. RESULT: The recipients of meridian massage felt less pain than before(F=12.587, p=.000). The recipients of meridian massage felt less often than before (F=6.705, p=.001). The recipients of meridian massage got lower score on subjective symptoms of myofascial pain than before(F=12.857, p=.000). The recipients of meridian massage had lower blood pressure than before(systolic blood pressure: t=4.697, p=.000, diastolic blood pressure: t=3.426, p=.002). The recipients of meridian massage did not get the lower number of pulse than before(t=0.33, p=.744). CONCLUSION: The above results show that meridian massage is effective on the reduction of pain and subjective symptoms of myofascial pain syndrome and makes stable the blood pressure. Therefore meridian massage can be apply as the effective intervention for the reduction of pain and subjective symptoms of myofascial pain syndrome.
Blood Pressure ; Busan ; Massage* ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes* ; Statistics as Topic

OBJECTIVE: To establish the objective method of diagnosing the myofascial pain syndrome through diagnostic ultrasound and pathology. METHOD: Hamstring muscles of 7 female house rabbits, weighing 2.5~3.0 Kg, were studied. The existence of nodule was confirmed by palpation and through diagnostic ultrasound. A horizontal length, vertical length, thickness, and an area of hyperechoic region were measured. Hyperechoic regions were biopsied and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. RESULTS: All examined rabbits had muscular nodules in the medial hamstring. Characteristic increase of echogenecity was observed in the medial hamstring muscles. Some uneven hyperechoic areas were seen in the lateral hamstring muscles. Fatty degeneration and giant round cells were observed in the medial hamstring where the echogenecity was increased. The giant round cells were observed only in the lateral hamstring. CONCLUSION: Increased echogenecity of the medial hamstring muscle is probably contributed by muscles cells with fatty degeneration and giant round cells, and some portions of hyperechogenecity of lateral hamstring requires further study.
Female ; Humans ; Muscles ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes* ; Palpation ; Pathology ; Rabbits ; Ultrasonography*

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is one of the common musculoskeletal conditions of the shoulder which may develop sensory-motor and autonomic dysfunctions at the various level of the neuromuscular system. The pain and dysfunction caused by MPS were primarily treated with physical therapy and pharmacological agents in order to achieve painfree movements. However, in recent years intramuscular electrical stimulation (IMES) with conventional electrode placement was used by researchers to maximise therapeutic values. But, in this study an inverse electrode placement was used to deliver electrical impulses intramuscularly to achieve neuro-modulation at the various level of the nervous system. Nine patients with MPS were treated with intramuscular electrode stimulation using inversely placed electrodes for a period of three weeks. All nine subjects recovered from their shoulder pain and disability within the few weeks of intervention. So, this inverse electrode placement may be more appropriate for chronic pain management.
Chronic Pain ; Electric Stimulation* ; Electrodes* ; Humans ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes* ; Nervous System ; Shoulder Pain ; Shoulder*

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the management of pediatric patients who were referred to the pain center. METHODS: The data was collected based on 32 pediatric patients referred to the pain center from March 2002 to August 2006. The number of patients each year, gender distribution, age, requested departments, clinical causes of consultation, and the pain management before and after the consultation were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: 32 pediatric patients (19 males and 13 females), aged 3- 17 years, were enrolled in this study. Fifty-six percent of patients were in adolescence. The major need for the consultation was cancer pain (50.0%), myofascial pain syndrome (10.0%) and central pain (10.0%). Before the consultation, 62.1% of the patients were managed by opioid-based medications of which 26.1% were managed by only partial agonists and 29.6% were managed by only PRN. At the pain center, opioid-based medication was also the main treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The number of pediatric patients referred to the pain center has increased. Under this condition, the pain physician should be concerned about pediatric pain patients and their management.
Adolescent ; Age Distribution ; Humans ; Male ; Myofascial Pain Syndromes ; Pain Clinics* ; Pain Management ; Retrospective Studies