📚Does the patients’ expectations on kinesiotape affect the outcomes of patients with a rotator cuff tear? A randomized controlled clinical trial - Akbaba et al (2018).

Aim: To investigate the effect of setting verbal expectations of K-Tape in patients with a rotator cuff tear.

Design: RCT, Double-blind with 89 patients diagnosed with rotator cuff tear

Outcome Measures: Resting pain, activity pain, night pain (VAS); ROM; Functional outcome (measured by DASH and ASES). These were measured for resting pain and activity pain before kinesiotaping and 30 minutes after. Night pain, ROM and functional outcomes were assessed after 24 hours.

Intervention: 

Patients were randomized to one of three groups.

1️⃣They were told that there is no evidence that Ktape is effective.

2️⃣There were told that there was limited evidence that Ktape is effective.

3️⃣They were told that there was an excellent effect of using Ktape.

Results✅:

1️⃣Group 2 showed a significant difference in terms of pain reduction 30 minutes after application of Ktape.

2️⃣Group 3 showed a significant difference in terms of pain reduction 30 minutes after application of Ktape and after 24 hours

📌 Conclusion:

Setting positive expectations verbally about Ktape might be effective in reducing pain in patients with rotator cuff tear.

Clinical Implication:

Obvious this was a cheeky study we used to show the power of patient expectations. There have been other studies showing positive expectations being linked to better pain and recovery.

The take home from this is, if we are going to use something like K-tape, should we set up a positive expectation if we are assuming some sort of placebo effect? Are there any ethical implications? Would you consider this a white lie?

About the authors:

Adrian and Colin are Physiotherapist from Sydney (Australia) and Vancouver (Canada) respectively. Educating and sharing research was a passion of their even since studying Physiotherapy at University together. They continued to develop and challenge their thoughts and judgments whilst working in Private practice sector in Sydney. 

Following Colin’s return his homeland of Canada. Adrian and Colin decided to kick-start an initiative to help new graduate Physiotherapists.
The Freshman Physio page HERE aims to Empower new graduate clinicians with an evolving way of reasoning and bridge the gap from University to practice. With the primary goal of “Creating Better Clinicians."

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