Clinical and Electromyographic Effect of Tui Na Massage Versus Positional Release on Postpartum Neck Dysfunction

Clinical and Electromyographic Effect of Tui Na Massage Versus Positional Release on Postpartum Neck Dysfunction A Randomized Clinical Trial

To investigate the effects of Tui- Na massage versus Positional release technique on neck pain intensity, neck disability, and electromyographic characteristics of upper trapezius muscle.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Postpartum Neck Dysfunction
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: postural correction exercises; Procedure: Tui-Na massage; Procedure: positional release

Detailed Description

Positional release technique

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Egypt
  • Cairo, Egypt
    • Kerolous ishak shehata kelini

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• age ranged from 20- 40 years
• had post partum cervical pain
• score above 15 in the neck disability index (NDI

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with structural, inflammatory, infectious, metabolic, congenital, traumatic spinal disorders and spinal or upper limb surgery.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: postural correction; 20 patients: will receive postural correction exercises program only.	Procedure: postural correction exercises; A combination of yoga, stretching, and strengthening exercises may help you to fix or correct your posture over time. Maintaining good posture is important for helping you develop strength, flexibility, and balance.
Experimental: Tui NA massage; 20 patients: will receive postural correction exercises program. In addition, an experienced therapist will apply the Tui Na massage to the cervical region	Procedure: Tui-Na massage; Tuina massage is similar to acupuncture in that it targets specific acupoints, but practitioners use fingers instead of needles to apply pressure to stimulate these points. Tuina massage is often used in combination with acupuncture.
Experimental: Positional release; 20 patients: will receive postural correction exercises program. In addition, the therapist put the patient in a comfortable posture for ninety seconds, after which they passively will be moved back to their initial positions	Procedure: positional release; is a passive manual manipulation method used to alleviate musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Electromyography	used for measuring upper trapezius normalized Root mean square to indicate muscular activities and median frequence to indicate muscular fatigue. Active electrode will be located 2 cm lateral to the midpoint of a line drawn between C7 spinous process and the posterolateral acromion while the reference one will be located over the C7 spinous process.	4 weeks
visual analogue scale	10 cm horizontal line anchored by and it is a line score from zero to ten which 10 score means it is the worse of pain and zero score means the least pain ""no pain"" on the leftand ""worst imaginable pain"" on the right). Patients indicate their pain intensity by marking on the point at the line that reflect their pain	4 week
Neck disability index	It includes 10 questions of which 7 examine functional activities, 2 ask about symptoms and a question considers concentration. Each Patient will circle one of the six options describing the severity of each item (0 5). total score for the questionnaire out of 50. Higher scores represent greater disability.	4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: October 6 University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 20, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 25, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): April 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 22, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 22, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): December 3, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 1, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 29, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: positional release; electromyographic; Tui-Na massage; postpartum neck dysfunction
• Other Study ID Numbers: PT.BU.EC.20

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No