CASE REPORT   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2021 September;180(9):493-7

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.20.04289-8

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Endogenous thermotherapy and laser therapy in the treatment of the medial gastrocnemius tear

Demetrio MILARDI ^{1, 2} ✉, Giuseppe PALADINA ¹, Antonio DUCA ¹, Giorgio C. BASILE ², Antongiulio BRUSCHETTA ³, Domenico FENGA ⁴, Paolo RIZZO ⁴, Alessia BRAMANTI ¹

¹ IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, Messina, Italy; ² Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy; ³ Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Monza-Brianza, Italy; ⁴ Unit of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Muscle injuries are very common during sport practice. Soccer at both professional and amateur level exposes to the risk of leg muscle injuries, especially in predisposed subjects. Tear of the medial head of gastrocnemius is a frequent injury that can happen during sport practice. Thermotherapy and elastic taping are addressed as a support through the recovery from several different kind of injuries. In this work we successfully made use of a combination of laser therapy, TECAR therapy and kinesiology taping to treat a structural muscle injury and to accompany our patient (a 36-years-old professional boxer) through the full recovery after the lesion. The aim of this report was to describe a 5-week protocol for the first time including the treatments in the context of the management of a structural muscle injury.

KEY WORDS: Laser therapy; Athletic tape; Diathermy; Kinesiology, applied; Wounds and injuries; Muscles