Effect of biofeedback and deep oscillation on Raynaud's phenomenon secondary to systemic sclerosis: results of a controlled prospective randomized clinical trial.

Our aim was to evaluate the effect of deep oscillation and biofeedback on Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) secondary to systemic sclerosis (SSc). A prospective randomized study was performed in SSc patients receiving either deep oscillation ( n = 10) or biofeedback ( n = 8) thrice a week for 4 weeks, or patients were randomized into the waiting group untreated for vasculopathy ( n = 10) in time of running the study interventions. Biofeedback resulted in an improvement of RP as determined by score reduction of visual analogue scale compared with patients of the control group ( P < 0.05), whereas deep oscillation revealed a tendency for improvement ( P = 0.055). The study underlines the beneficial role of physiotherapy for the treatment of SSc-related RP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]