The Effect of Massage Therapy on Pain after Surgery

Massage therapy has been reported to reduce pain and anxiety for some patients after surgery. However, the results from various studies are inconclusive. And thus, a review was conducted on results from published randomized controlled trials (RCTs)  to clarify the effects of massage therapy in the treatment of postoperative pain.

The authors from the Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in China searched three databases for RCTs with a primary outcome of pain relief. The study was published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine.

The analysis of 33 RCTs showed that massage therapy effectively reduces postoperative pain. The positive effect was found for both short (immediate assessment) and long terms (assessment performed 4 to 6 weeks after massage therapy).

An unexpected finding was neither the duration per session (less or longer than 20 minutes) nor the dose (once or more than once) had an impact on the effect. In addition there was no difference in the effects of different massage types (Swedish vs, other styles). Massage therapy seemed to be more effective for adults. Furthermore, massage had better analgesic effects on cesarean section and heart surgery than orthopedic surgery.

Nevertheless, the authors realise there is a publication bias due to the inclusion of studies in English only. Additionally, the included studies were extremely heterogeneous.