View clinical trials related to Musculoskeletal Diseases.
Filter by:Professional dancing requires an almost perfect control of technical skills, combined with a good physical condition. To meet the demands of choreography, dancers need an adequate aerobic endurance capacity, muscular strength as well as flexibility and motor control (Twitchett et al. 2009; Roussel et al. 2009). One could compare these requirements to those of an athlete. In contrasts to athletes, only few attention has been given to the prevention of injuries in dancers. Professional dancers are at high risk to develop musculoskeletal injuries, especially, soft tissue and overuse injuries to lower extremities and spine(Hincapié et al, 2008). Several potential risk factors for injury have been suggested, such as a reduced level of aerobic fitness, lack of muscular strength, hypermobility of the joints and altered motor control of the lumbopelvic region but no conclusive evidence exists for any of these items separately. Applying sports science principles to dance training may improve the performances of the dancers (Twitchett et al. 2009). Dancers demonstrate low aerobic fitness and muscle strength, in contrast to the high demands. Aerobic endurance of dancers is for example comparable to healthy adults with a sedentary life style. Fitness programs, additional to regular dance classes, have only recently been considered (Twitchett et al. 2009). The advantages of additional training in athletes is beyond questioning. Nevertheless, this concept is relatively new for dancers. On the one hand, professional dancers do not consider themselves as a sportsmen but as artists (Wyon et al, 2007). On the other hand, choreographers and dancers fear the negative influence of training on body aesthetics. Additional fitness training could improve physical fitness & motor control and may help with stress coping during public performances. Therefore, the purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to examine whether an additional intervention to regular dance lessons influences the physical condition and musculoskeletal injury rate in professional dancers.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate prospectively the effectiveness of acupuncture as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of spinal pain is the three backbone areas: cervical, thoracic and lumbar pain, under conditions of usual clinical practice as the medical acupuncturist performed acupuncture, with and without supplementary pharmacological treatment during the first 4 weeks of follow up.