COMPARISON OF CALCANEAL TAPING AND SHAM TAPING IN SHORT TERM MANAGEMENT OF PAIN IN PLANTAR FASCIITIS- A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL

Background: Heel and foot pain are most commonly caused by plantar fasciitis, it has been classified as an overuse syndrome that results in micro-traumas or injury of plantar fascia. Biomechanically, the decrease in arch height is caused by calcaneal eversion, plantar flexion/adduction of talus. This may cause plantar fascia to be stressed out. By repositioning calcaneus to neutral position may increase height of medial longitudinal arch leading to decreased stress and micro trauma of plantar fascia. Our technique is unique due to focus on rear foot instead of mid foot. Objective: The objective was to compare effects of calcaneal and sham taping 4 relieve pain in improvement of plantar fasciitis. Methods: It was experimental randomized controlled trial, single factor, pretest/post-test study. 50 Patients were included. Subjects were equally allocated in two groups with use of coin toss method of randomization. Group classification was such as Group 1, Calcaneal Taping and Group 2, Sham Taping. Improvement in Pain and functional limitations was measured at pre/post levels by Numeric Pain Rating Scale and Patient Specific Function Scale. Results: Results showed a significant difference with p value 0.000, mean and standard deviation of patient specific function scale for calcaneal and sham taping group to be 3.240+0.730 and 5.107+0.533, respectively with mean difference of 1.867. Post Treatment measurements of pain showed a mean difference of 2.240 points on Numeric Rating Pain Scale and highly significant difference (p value 0.000 Patients in both calcaneal and sham taping groups showed a significant improvement for pain and specific function (p value 0.000) when analyzed with paired sample t test statistics. Conclusion: The study concluded that calcaneal taping produced significantly better outcomes in improvement of pain and function in patients with plantar fasciitis. Keywords: Planter Fasciitis, Calcaneal Taping, Sham Taping, Pain, Functio