Fisioterapia aquática como tratamento para a dor e a inflamação em bailarinos profissionais

Abstract

Dance is a professional activity that requires high performance and capacity, generating the numerous functions that trigger pain and inflammatory processes. Pain and inflammation are factors that compromise the performance of the dancer by limiting the work of flexibility, strength and interfering in the execution of the movements, compromising his professional career. Among the treatments of pain and inflammation we have the use of drugs, manipulative and aquatic physiotherapy, which have had good results in the reduction of pain and inflammation. One of the means of treatment for the prevention, reduction and improvement of these factors is aquatic physiotherapy, which uses its medium and its physical, physiological and kinesiological effects as resources for the improvement of pain and inflammatory processes. This study aimed to investigate the effect of aquatic physiotherapy as a treatment of pain and inflammation in professional dancers. To this end, 30 professional dancers of both sexes, with a minimum age of 18 years, were selected and developed activities at the FAMES - Santa Maria, RS Centenary Integration and Art Dance Company. All were submitted to a Nordic Osteomuscular Symptom Questionnaire (NOSQ), Work Stress Scale (WSS), Pain threshold control by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT). Blood samples were collected with the objective of quantifying the serum concentration of pro-structural cytokines (Interleukin-1β, Interleukin-6, Interleukin-10, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha, Interferon-gamma) before and after treatment for inflammatory process. Professional dancers were also divided into two groups: Group With Aquatic Physiotherapy (GWAP) and Group With No Aquatic Physiotherapy (GWNAP). The GWAP was attended and submitted to the intervention of aquatic physiotherapy that consisted of heating ten minutes, thirty minutes of exercises and twenty minutes of relaxation. These received 12 physiotherapeutic sessions in the water, sometimes tripled in the week, over four weeks totaling the period of one month. After data collection and processing, the statistical analysis was applied with the purpose of comparing and relating the variables between the groups in the pre and post treatment outcome measures. The results showed a high prevalence of localized pain in lower limbs, lower back region according to VAS and medium stress level according to WSS. The group with aquatic physiotherapy presented a significant reduction in pain intensity and inflammatory processes when compared to the control group. In conclusion, through the analysis of the results of EVA and cytokines between the groups, it was demonstrated that, in the GCFA, aquatic physiotherapy positively influenced the reduction of pain and inflammation of these dancers.