An unusual complication: prolonged myopathy due to an alternative medical therapy with heat and massage
PainSci summary of Tanriover 2009?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided at the bottom of the page, as often as possible. ★★☆☆☆?2-star ratings are for studies with flaws, bias, and/or conflict of interest; published in lesser journals. Ratings are a highly subjective opinion, and subject to revision at any time. If you think this paper has been incorrectly rated, please let me know.
This paper tells the horror story of one person’s awful experience with a severe reaction to (apparently) infrared heat and regular massage over several days. The trouble started after several days. His neck and arms became swollen, the pain “unbearable,” and his “serum muscle enzymes were increased” — probably some form or degree of rhabdomyolysis, which implicates the massage itself as a mechanism of injury.
Massage is not likely to “blame,” however — it was probably interacting with some unidentified vulnerability in the patient, such a muscle disease or a complication caused by a medication. Clearly massage and heat alone do not normally cause such severe side effects.
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
A 66-year-old male presented with swelling of the neck and arms, which was limiting his daily activities. Serum muscle enzymes were increased. A detailed history revealed that the patient received 10 cycles of infrared heat and massage therapy approximately 1 month before his first visit to the outpatient clinic. The swelling of the extremities began on day 11 of therapy, and the pain became unbearable. He was followed up with analgesics. There was a significant decrease in the muscle enzymes and a subjective improvement of 60-70% one month after discharge. Alternative therapies may have serious complications, and patients usually do not report them unless asked specifically.
related content
These two articles on PainScience.com cite Tanriover 2009 as a source:
- PS Massage Therapy Side Effects — What could possibly go wrong with massage? The risks and side effects of massage therapy are usually mild, but “deep tissue” massage can cause trouble
- PS Poisoned by Massage — Rather than being DE-toxifying, deep tissue massage can probably cause a slightly toxic situation in the body
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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- The neck and headaches. Bogduk 2014 Neurol Clin.
- Agreement of self-reported items and clinically assessed nerve root involvement (or sciatica) in a primary care setting. Konstantinou 2012 Eur Spine J.
- Effect of NSAIDs on Recovery From Acute Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Morelli 2017 Am J Sports Med.
- Association of Spinal Manipulative Therapy With Clinical Benefit and Harm for Acute Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Paige 2017 JAMA.