Cutaneous blood flow changes in the contralateral upper limb to that receiving hot hydrotherapy
Item
- Title
- Cutaneous blood flow changes in the contralateral upper limb to that receiving hot hydrotherapy
- Author(s)
- Levy Kerri-Lynne
- Abstract
-
Hydrotherapy is widely used by naturopathic osteopaths to improve circulation, and facilitate healing, with lasting results. However, there is inadequate research regarding the contralateral effects of such treatments. This study assessed the effects of hot hydrotherapy application on the contralateral limb and any effects of arm dominance on the results.
Eighteen healthy, male subjects attended three sessions each. Cutaneous blood perfusion in both forearms was measured in blood perfusion units, using laser Doppler flowmetry, throughout each 30 minute session. The intervention period, minutes 6 - 14, consisted of hydrotherapy application to the left and right arms respectively. No hydrotherapy was applied at the control session.
Four 5 minute periods were isolated from the resulting graphs, before, during, immediately post and 10 minutes post-intervention. These were labelled periods 1 - 4 respectively. For each period, a mean blood perfusion value was calculated, for both arms of all subjects, per session.
Repeated-measures ANOVA tests indicated significant differences (P<0.05) between the time periods for both the left and right arms during the control, following ipsilateral hydrotherapy application, and for left arm measurements after contralateral application. Tukeys Multiple Comparison Tests highlighted where the differences lay for each set of data.
The study concluded that limb dominance was a relevant factor, as only application to the dominant limb induced bilateral effects. However, the results were inconclusive regarding the assessment of the contralateral effects of hot hydrotherapy, as only the right application produced significant contralateral results. Further work is required to clarify whether improvements to the procedure would enhance the results. - presented at
- British College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Date Accepted
- 0
- Date Submitted
- 1.1.1970 00:00:00
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 13680
- Inst-Identifier
- 1076
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Levy Kerri-Lynne, “Cutaneous blood flow changes in the contralateral upper limb to that receiving hot hydrotherapy”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed April 19, 2024, https://www.osteopathic-research.com/s/orw/item/1077