Assessment of proprioceptive exercises in the treatment of rotator cuff disorders in nursing professionals: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Shoulder pain in nursing professionals may lead to limitations in occupational and daily activities and consequently interfere with quality of life.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of two physical therapy programs which differed in the proprioceptive exercises used on the nursing professionals with rotator cuff disorder, according to quality of life, work satisfaction indicators, and pain intensity.

METHOD: This study was an experimental, randomized, prospective, comparative trial with quantitative data analysis. The data sampling was carried out between the months of June 2010 and July 2011 by means of a questionnaire containing socio-demographic and professional information, the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index (WORC), the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI), and the Visual Numeric Scale (VNS). Based on randomization, subjects were divided into two groups. Group 1 (control) was submitted to stretching and strengthening exercises and cryotherapy. Group 2 (experimental) was treated with the same protocol as the control group, with the addition of proprioception exercises. The data was analyzed by means of the Statistical Package for the Social Science version 16.0 for Windows.

RESULTS: After physical therapy intervention, significant reduction in pain levels occurred in both groups, with a significant improvement in quality of life for Group 2. No changes were observed in the work satisfaction indicators after the two types of physical therapy interventions.

CONCLUSIONS: The proprioceptive exercises were important in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, however the results did not allow us to determine which treatment was the most effective as there was no significant difference between groups.