Safety of subcutaneous microinjections (mesotherapy) in musicians.

OBJECTIVE

Determine the safety and tolerance of mesotherapy as a technique for the treatment of musculoskeletal complaints in musicians.

METHOD

67 patients (55.2% women) were subjected to a total of 267 mesotherapy sessions. A mesotherapy needle or normal needle was used randomly. The drugs employed were thiocolchicoside and diazepam as muscular relaxants, pentoxifylline or buflomedil as vasodilators, and piroxicam as an anti-inflammatory, as directed. A visual analogue scale was used to quantify the pain produced by the microinjections as well as the degree of immediate and midterm side effects as reported on a standard questionnaire.

RESULTS

A mean of 155.5 microinjections were performed per session, of which 45.6% were perceived as painful by the patient with a mean severity of 4.3 out of 10. The pain reduced to 0.5 out of 10 after 24 hours. The most sensitive areas were the levator scapulae and splenius muscles. Systemic symptoms were reported by 5.99% of the musicians after the mesotherapy sessions (muscular weakness 1.5%, rash 1.5%, drowsiness 1.1% and itching 1.1%, being the most frequent). The mean severity of these symptoms was 2.77 out of 10. In all cases the symptoms had completely disappeared after 24 hours. No patient referred to signs of local or systemic infection.

CONCLUSIONS

The application of drugs by means of subcutaneous injections (mesotherapy) in musicians is a technique that is safe, well tolerated, and without any severe complications.