Effect of Laser Acupuncture on Neck and Shoulder Pain in Lactating Women

NCT ID: NCT07084415

Last Updated: 2025-07-24

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 44 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-07-25
• Study Completion Date: 2025-10-25

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of laser acupuncture on neck and shoulder pain in lactating women.

Detailed Description

Breastfeeding was the most common daily living activity that caused neck and shoulder pain to become worse in lactating women, the mother's position is a head-down position to maintain eye contact with the infant, so there are possibilities of breastfeeding-related neck pain .

It was revealed that neck and shoulder pain greatly influenced the health of postpartum women; it led to a reduction in the level of quality of life of postpartum women.

Acupuncture is a choice for therapeutic intervention of patients with neck and shoulder pain and can be incorporated into rehabilitation.

laser acupuncture (LA) uses a low-intensity, non-thermal laser irradiation to stimulate the acupoints. LA may improve pain, disability, and functional levels in musculoskeletal disorders like shoulder and neck pain

Conditions

Neck Pain

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Postural correction exercise group

The participants will receive postural correction exercises for 10 repetitions, 5 sessions per week for 4 weeks.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Postural correction exercise

Intervention Type: OTHER

Each participant will be given cervical thoracic spine correction exercises in the form of thoracic Roll Stretching Exercises, shoulder Bracing (Shoulder Retraction), superman Pose, chin Tuck (Cervical Retraction), five days a week for 4 weeks

Postural correction exercise and laser acupuncture group

The participants will receive postural correction exercises (10 repetitions, 5 sessions per week for 4 weeks.), and laser acupuncture for 7 minutes twice per week for 4 weeks.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Postural correction exercise

Intervention Type: OTHER

Each participant will be given cervical thoracic spine correction exercises in the form of thoracic Roll Stretching Exercises, shoulder Bracing (Shoulder Retraction), superman Pose, chin Tuck (Cervical Retraction), five days a week for 4 weeks

Laser acupuncture

Intervention Type: DEVICE

A dermatograph pencil (COLOURED®) will be used to draw circles with diameters of 2 cm around the application points. Each point will be stimulated for 30 seconds.

The laser will be placed at the specific acupuncture points in shoulder and cervical regions.

Each woman in the study group will be treated by laser acupuncture for 7 minutes twice a week for 4 weeks.

Acupuncture points of the neck:

B10 (Tianzhu), GB 20 (Fengchi), GB 21 (jianjing), and EX-HN15 (jianzhongsgu). Acupuncture points of shoulder: LI 14 (Binao), LI 15 (Jianyu), TE 14 (Jianlio), LI 4 (Hegu),LI16 (Jugu), ST 38 (Tiaoko), SI 10 (Naoshu),LI 11 (Quchi),TE 15 (Tianliao),LU 1 (Zhongfu),

Parameter of laser:

wavelength: 808[nm], Operating mode: Continuous wave, Output power: 100 [mW], Power density: 333[mW/cm], area irradiated:0.3 cm2, Total time per point: 30[s], Angle of application:90 degree.

Interventions

Postural correction exercise

Each participant will be given cervical thoracic spine correction exercises in the form of thoracic Roll Stretching Exercises, shoulder Bracing (Shoulder Retraction), superman Pose, chin Tuck (Cervical Retraction), five days a week for 4 weeks

Intervention Type: OTHER

Laser acupuncture

A dermatograph pencil (COLOURED®) will be used to draw circles with diameters of 2 cm around the application points. Each point will be stimulated for 30 seconds.

The laser will be placed at the specific acupuncture points in shoulder and cervical regions.

Each woman in the study group will be treated by laser acupuncture for 7 minutes twice a week for 4 weeks.

Acupuncture points of the neck:

B10 (Tianzhu), GB 20 (Fengchi), GB 21 (jianjing), and EX-HN15 (jianzhongsgu). Acupuncture points of shoulder: LI 14 (Binao), LI 15 (Jianyu), TE 14 (Jianlio), LI 4 (Hegu),LI16 (Jugu), ST 38 (Tiaoko), SI 10 (Naoshu),LI 11 (Quchi),TE 15 (Tianliao),LU 1 (Zhongfu),

Parameter of laser:

wavelength: 808[nm], Operating mode: Continuous wave, Output power: 100 [mW], Power density: 333[mW/cm], area irradiated:0.3 cm2, Total time per point: 30[s], Angle of application:90 degree.

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Lactating women Suffering from cervical and shoulder pain.
• Their body mass index will be less than 30 kg/m².
• Primipara and multipara "2:3 times" women.
• six weeks to one year after childbirth.

Exclusion Criteria

• Neurological disorders.
• Musculoskeletal disorders as cervical discopathy or shoulder impingement syndrome.
• History of cervical or shoulder surgery.
• Infection or malignancy.
• Take any medical treatment or physiotherapy interventions in the past one month.
• Fibromyalgia or myopathy

• Minimum Eligible Age: 20 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 40 Years
• Eligible Sex: FEMALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Cairo University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Yara Mokhtar Abd El-Latif

Principal investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Hossam Hussein, Professor

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Al-Azhar University

Doaa Osman, Professor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Cairo University

Locations

Yara Mokhtar Abd El-Latif

Cairo, , Egypt

Countries

Egypt

Central Contacts

Yara Abdellatif, Master

Role: CONTACT

yara.mokhtaar@gmail.com

01020098852

Elham Hassan, PHD

Role: CONTACT

elhamramadan70@cu.edu.eg

01206146539

Other Identifiers

P.T.REC/012/005732

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id