Safety and effectiveness of fascial therapy in the treatment of adult patients with hemophilic elbow arthropathy: a pilot study

ABSTRACT

Background: Hemophilic arthropathy is characterized by loss of function and chronic pain. Fascial therapy mobilizes the connective tissue and is thus involved in the condition of the injured fascial complex and the surrounding tissues.

Objective: To evaluate the safety of a physiotherapy program using fascial therapy in patients with hemophilic elbow arthropathy.

Methods: Fourteen adult patients with hemophilia were randomly assigned to a control group and an intervention group. The intervention consisted of three 45-min sessions of fascial therapy over a 3-week period. Assessment was carried out at baseline, after treatment, and at follow-up. The study variables were bleeding frequency using a self-registration of bleeding; joint pain using the visual analog scale; range of motion with a universal goniometer; and joint status assessed with Hemophilia Joint Health Score.

Results: None of the patients developed joint bleeding during the experimental period. Joint pain in the experimental group decreased by 1.43 out of 2.43 (95% CI 0.52 to 2.33) and 2.14 out of 2.57 (95% CI 0.18 to 4.10) in right and left elbow, respectively, more than the control group by 3 weeks. Flexion increased by 3.57 degrees out of 129.14 (95% CI 5.48 to 1.65) in right elbow and joint condition improved by 1.14 points out of 6.0 (95% CI 0.01 to 2.26) more than the control group by 3 weeks.

Conclusion: Fascial therapy does not appear to produce elbow hemarthrosis in patients with hemophilia. This treatment can improve joint pain, range of motion, and elbow status in patients with hemophilia.

KEYWORDS:

• Hemophilic arthropathy
• patient safety
• elbow
• fascial therapy
• physiotherapy

Acknowledgments

The authors are especially grateful to the Spanish Federation of Hemophilia and the Association of Hemophilia of Burgos for their help in recruiting sample subjects. This work received financial support from Baxalta US Inc, now part of Shire (Grant ID Number: H16-36143).

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Baxalta US Inc, now part of Shire [Grant ID Number: H16-36143].