BACKGROUND: The current COVID-19 pandemic has changed the entire world population’s physical and mental wellbeing irrespective of the person being infected or not. Flourishing numbers of new research recommends physiotherapy for the management of COVID-19 patients. However, there are cavities in the study in the recommendation of physiotherapy specific to the current pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This review aimed to synthesize physiotherapy-related articles to COVID-19 and summarize their efficacious highlights. METHODS: For the literature search PubMed, PEDro, DOAJ and The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were used. The keywords included “Physiotherapy”, “COVID-19”, and “Coronavirus”. The Boolean search was applied as required. Selection criteria included studies that included physiotherapy intervention as a tool for recovery of COVID-19. Exclusion criteria included animal studies, non-COVID-19 studies and physiotherapy as an adjunct treatment. The study evaluated evidence of all full-text articles in English from December 2019 to August 2020. RESULTS: Of the retrieved 577 articles, 390 articles were excluded at the title and abstract screening. 167 articles underwent full-text screening and further narrowed to 11 studies matching the expected criteria. 156 studies were excluded for various reasons. CONCLUSION: The current study findings support that physiotherapy interventions facilitate recovery in COVID-19 patients and act as a protective barrier. Further results include a reduced length of stay in intensive care and reduced treatment cost since this outbreak has brought a significant economic burden to many countries.
Study design: Interventional TrialObjectives: To investigate the effect of myofascial trigger point release (MFR) therapy in management of unilateral plantar heel pain (PHP).Background: PHP is characterized by pain in the heel region and is restricted to the sole of foot with tenderness of the heel region. Plantar heel pain is more common foot condition managed by health care professionals and accounts for 8 % of all injuries. It's not known whether inclusion of MFR can further improve the outcomes in patients with PHP.Methods: 42 patients, 14 men, 28 females (mean ± SD age, 42.76±11.73) with diagnosis of unilateral PHP where divided into two groups. Patients in control (CRT) group received ultrasound therapy and stretching therapy. In addition, experimental (ERT) group received MFR. The result was measured using following outcomes: Dorsiflexion range of motion, Pain Pressure Threshold (PPT), self reported pain Outcome measure (Numerical Pain Rating Scale-NPRS), Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM). Outcome of interest were measured at baseline and after 10 day follow-up.Results: Significant difference was present between groups in all outcomes. In additionally within group and between group effect size were calculated using Cohen d co-efficient. The effect sizes for the variables were found to be moderate to large demonstrating the positive effects of MFR.
Conclusion:This study proves that addition of MFR results in superior short-term outcomes compared to stretching with ultrasound therapy alone in treatment of unilateral PHP.
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