Abstract

Biomechanical Stimulation Therapy - An Efficacious Method for Facial Scleroderma with Reduced Oral Aperture

Highlights

  • To reduce edema and tension of the skin, various physical therapies can be used in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)

  • The mean interlabial distance ± standard deviation (SD) at baseline was 54 ± 3 mm in the 20 healthy controls, 36.6 ± 7.2 mm (95% confidence interval [CI] 32.75 ; 40.37) in the regular biomechanical stimulation (BMS) group and 32.4 ± 9.3 mm in the intensive BMS group (Figure 2)

  • While the mean ± SD interlabial distance increased by 2.1 ± 1.3 mm to 38.7 ± 7 mm in the regular BMS group, an even higher increase of 5.7 ± 2.8 mm yielding 38.1 ± 9.1 mm was achieved in the intensive BMS group (Figure 2)

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Summary

Introduction

To reduce edema and tension of the skin, various physical therapies can be used in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). As biomechanical stimulation (BMS) therapy has been identified as an effective physiotherapy method to improve the mobility of joints, legs and the trunk in SSc, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of BMS in SSc patients with reduced oral aperture due to facial scleroderma. Until today no antifibrotic or immunosuppressive agents have been shown to be of sustained benefit in counteracting the skin changes of SSc. Physical therapy plays a central role in the therapeutic armamentarium for the treatment of rheumatic diseases including SSc. In addition to manual lymph drainage, biomechanical stimulation (BMS) therapy has been described as a novel physiotherapy method for patients with SSc [6]. Since an improvement of skin score and joint mobility has been achieved by BMS in SSc patients [6] we decided to investigate BMS in SSc patients with facial scleroderma and reduced oral aperture

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