To compare the effectiveness of hold-relax pnf stretching and passive stretching in improving rom and decreasing shoulder pain and disability score in patients with adhesive capsulitis

Background – Adhesive capsulitis is also named peri-arthritis or frozen shoulder. It is primarily the inflammation and adhesions in the capsule which causes restricted glenohumeral joint mobility and pain with idiopathic cause. This leads to various functional limitations/disabilities. Various physical therapy interventions, including different stretching techniques like hold-relax PNF stretching and passive stretching were used to treat adhesive capsulitis. In a quest to find out which of these techniques exhibit profound outcomes, the study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Hold-Relax PNF stretching and passive stretching in improving ROM and decreasing shoulder pain and disability score in patients with adhesive capsulitis.
Methodology – A comparative study was carried on 30 patients. Subjects diagnosed with Adhesive Capsulitis were selected as per inclusion criteria and randomly divided into Group A (hold-relax PNF stretching) and group B (passive stretching), 15 in each group. Both groups of patients received a Hydro-collateral pack before stretching. AROM and SPADI scores were taken at baseline and after 4th week. The data were analyzed using the paired and unpaired t-test.
Results: Hold-relax PNF stretching and passive stretching was effective among which hold-relax PNF stretching was more effective in increasing shoulder ROM of external rotation (Mean 67.8,p=0.0015), abduction (Mean 85.33, p=0.0053), and internal rotation (Mean 64.4,p=0.0002), and reducing pain and disability on SPADI (Mean 32.46, p=0.0001).
Conclusion: Hold-relax PNF stretching (Group A) is more effective in improving shoulder ROM and function as compared to passive stretching (group B).