Light Touch Manual Therapy as a Potential Adjuvant for the Management of Mechanical Allodynia in Patients with Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Background: Allodynia is a symptom associated with many diseases, including spinal cord injury (SCI), and often worsens over time as crisscrossed neuronal synapses make stronger connections. What triggers a crossover between pain and pleasure during gentle touch processing remains to be fully revealed. Reduce mechanical allodynia (MA) after SCI may minimize its progress for a secondary neuropathic central pain.

Methods: The pre-post study investigated if MA intensity pf patients with acute SCI would improve after the association of manual therapy sessions with light touch as a non-pharmacological adjuvant modality to participant's analgesic drug strategy during the acute SCI stage. The light touch manual therapy was based on TOUCH’IN method, which consists of gently touching the MA area following predetermined steps.

Results: In all participants the MA was the main pain complain even though they were receiving pharmacological analgesic therapy. Right after the end of the first session with light touch manual therapy, MA significantly reduced from an intense (average 9/10) to a mild level (average 1/10) and the self-perception of health improvement increased. It took about 3 consecutive sessions to participants sustain the MA intensity at a mild level. Since the MA intensity reduction was achieved, it remained low for at least 180 days. The functionality and the self-perception of health improvement were also significantly improved after the association of manual therapy to drug therapy.

Conclusion: MA intensity was significantly reduced in patients with acute SCI, when light touch therapy based on TOUCH’IN method was associated as an adjuvant non-pharmacological strategy to participant's analgesic drug therapy.