PULSED VERSUS CONTINUOUS ULTRASOUND THERAPY: AS A MANAGEMENT OF LATERAL EPICONDYLITIS.

Abstract

Objective: There are several treatments available for the management of lateral epicondylitis (LE), but there is a dearth of clinical trials compared the efficacy of pulsed versus continuous ultrasound therapy (UST) in the management of lateral epicondylitis.

Methods: Based upon inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 20 subjects with the mean age of 37.8±7 years diagnosed with lateral epicondylitis were participated in the study. Subjects were randomly allocated to two groups (n=10 in each), group-A and B and was given pulsed ultrasound therapy (PUST) and continuous ultrasound therapy (CUST) respectively. Although, both study groups were received conventional physiotherapy management in addition to these interventional measures. The pre and post interventional outcome was assessed based on pain intensity by using visual analogue scale (VAS). Total duration of study was for 2weeks.

Results: Although within group comparison showed improvement with respect to decrease in the pain intensity in both individual groups. Whereas, between groups comparisons showed that PUST group subjects pain intensity was significantly reduced while compared to CUST group (p=0.01).

Conclusion: The study concluded that PUST in addition to the conventional physiotherapy exercises for patients with subacute lateral epicondylitis have better result than CUST. Thus current study implies PUST should be considered as a choice in rehabilitation protocol in patients with subacute LE.