Myofascial pain syndrome: Efficacy of different therapies

We have read the letter by Majlesi and Unalan expressing their concerns and contributions to our previously published article on chronic myofascial pain. As they mentioned, it was the first published paper aimed to investigate the effects of high power pain threshold ultrasound technique in the treatment of chronic myofascial pain patients. We aimed to detect whether this technique would be as effective as it was found on acute myofascial pain patients. In this study, we also investigated the effects of conventional ultrasound technique, trigger point injections by using local anesthetic and botulinum toxin which are also commonly used methods for treating acute or chronic myofascial pain. As we stated in the discussion part of our paper, we believed that the high power pain threshold technique might better be used for patients with acute myofascial pain syndrome as the authors had been recommended. We agree that while using this method, the pain subsides quickly and can not be considered as an adverse effect. We also agree that, exercises, good functional status and biomechanical factors are all very important in chronic myofascial pain patients; therefore we gave exercise programs with the emphasis on stretching in all groups of patients participated in this study. We appreciate the authors’ comments and contributions.