Professor and Chair Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Director. University of Padua, United States
Research Objectives: To investigate the short-term effects of a spa rehabilitative protocol on pain perception, mood, and Quality of Life among patients affected by degenerative musculoskeletal disorders or post orthopaedic surgery outcomes.
Design: A multicenter observational study was conducted through pre- and post-treatment evaluations, planned follow-ups at three and six months were not conducted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Setting: The study was carried out in six spa facilities (Sirmione, Lombardy region, Italy; Abano Terme, Veneto region, Italy; Battaglia Terme, Veneto region, Italy; Levico Terme, Trentino Alto Adige region, Italy; Bibione, Veneto region, Italy; Casciana Terme, Tuscany region, Italy).
Participants: From March 2019 up to October 2019, data from the 160 users of the spa facilities with a medical prescription were collected.
Interventions: Twelve sessions of water-based exercise (thermal or warm water), six sessions per week, for a period of two weeks. A group of 44 patients also received traditional thermal therapies, including 12 mud therapy sessions and 12 thermal baths, six times each week, for two weeks.
Main Outcome Measures: Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), and the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D).
Results: Data analysis has highlighted significant improvements in NRSp (p < 0.001), NRSa (p < 0.001), SF-12 PCS (p < 0.001), SF-12 MCS (p < 0.001), EQ-5D (p < 0.001), and NRSm (p=0.005) after the treatments. Different water types seemed to influence results, showing significant differences in NRSp, NRSa, NRSm, SF-12 PCS, SF-12 MCS and EQ-5D scores (p-value respectively, 0.003, < 0.001, < 0.001, < 0.001, < 0.001).
Conclusions: he spa environment in real-life demonstrated it could provide an out-of-hospital alternative for post-surgical patients. The addition of traditional thermal treatments should be a viable strategy for rehabilitation in degenerative conditions.
Author(s) Disclosures: No coflict of interests to declare.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, participant will be able to debate and list the beneficial effects of spa-rehabilitative interventions
Upon completion, participant will be able to recognise the positive effects on post-surgical orthopaedic disability and the further benefits of the addition of traditional thermal therapies.
Upon completion, participant will be able to classify the different types of thermal waters and their beneficial effects on different aspects of patients with muscular diseases.
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