Short-term effect of ultrasound therapy on stiffness elbow joint

Abstract

Elbow stiffness is hard to treat and commonly resulted from trauma or degenerative arthritis. This study aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of using ultrasound therapy in management of stiff elbow joint resulted from several etiological factors. A total number of 42 patients (35 male and 7 female) allocated randomly from the Department of Physiotherapy at Al-yarmouk Teaching Hospital during 2013. Each patient examined physically by physiotherapist taking in consideration the measurement of the joint movement angle using goniometer in flexion and the extension, and the pain score using visual analogue scale (VAS). Ultrasound therapy initiated thrice weekly for two weeks. At the time of entry, the means degree of flexion and extension movements were 148.45 and 113.33º. Ultrasound therapy significantly reduced the pain from of 1.238±0.932 to 0.38± 0.538score. Significant improvement observed in patients aged more than 20 years and the improvement in flexion elbow significantly correlated with the frequency of ultrasound. In Conclusions ultrasound therapy is safe, effective and provided pain relieve as well as wide range of movement in post-traumatic elbow stiffness.