BACKGROUND: Can patients with neck-shoulder pain receive physiotherapy at home? OBJECTIVES: This study compares the effectiveness of home-programmed medical massage therapy and hot pack therapy in patients with neck-shoulder pain (NSP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients with complaints of pain in the anatomical triangle between the root of the neck and shoulder acro-mioclavicular and sternoclavicular joints were included in the study. The study was completed with a total of 94 patients. Patients were given home medical massage therapy and hot pack therapy application training, called for control after 20 sessions/day, and the values obtained at the beginning and after the sessions were compared. RESULTS: When the perceived pain level of the patients who completed the study was analyzed according to a range of motion (ROM) exam before and after medical massage and hot pack therapy, it was found that the pain decreased significantly (p < 0.001). According to the examination of shoulder joint movements, the perceived pain levels before therapy were not statistically different between the patients who received medical massage and hot pack therapy (p > 0.05). On the other hand, the perceived pain level of the medical massage group was statistically adequate, and the pain decreased compared to the hot pack group in the post-therapy analysis (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It was observed that massage and hot pack applications reduce pain in treating neck and shoulder joint pain syndrome. Massage was more effective than a hot pack in pain management for NSP.

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