Role of Mesotherapy in Musculoskeletal Pain: Opinions from the Italian Society of Mesotherapy

Table 2

Initial open studies in patients with musculoskeletal pain.

Study	Disease	No. of patients	Study characteristics	Drugs utilized	Control	Period of followup	No. of sessions	Outcomes
Ruggeri et al. 1981 [31]	Cervico-dorsal rachialgia, lumbosacral spinalgia, coxarthrosis, gonarthrosis, and Duplay's disease	984	M R	NSAIDs, myorelaxants, and procaine	NC	from 3 to 6 weeks	1–3 sessions at 1- or 2- week intervals	80% of pts reported pain reduction. More effective in cervicodorsal rachialgia (87%), tendinitis and bursitis (83.3%); coxarthrosis (50%)
Colombo et al. 1981 [32]	Acute cervicalgia, lumbar pain, acute myositis, tendinitis, traumatic disorders, shoulder-hand syndrome	484	M P O	Vasodilators, NSAIDs, myorelaxants, and procaine	NC	9 days	3 sessions of mesotherapy at 3-day intervals	Pain reduction in 83.6% of pts.
Saraceni et al. 1981 [33]	Periarthritis, rachialgia, gonarthrosis, tendinitis, epitrocleitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome	200	M P O	NSAIDs, myorelaxant, vasodilator, and anaesthetic	NC	3 sessions of treatment in 21 days	3 sessions of treatment in 21 days	Pain reduction in 91% of pts.
Piantoni et al. 1981 [34]	Osteoarticular disorders with pain (cervical, dorsal, lumbar column, shoulder, hip, and knee)	46	P O	NSAIDs	NC	21 days	sessions of treatment in 21 days	Pain reduction in 78% of pts.
Pezone et al. 1981 [35]	Osteoarticular disorders	256	M R	NSAIDs, myorelaxant, vasodilator, and anaesthetic	NC	30 days	sessions every 3 days	Pain reduction in 52.7 % and improvement of articular function in 54.7% of pts.
Currò and Bearzato 1981 [36]	Gonarthrosis	20	P O	s-adenosil l-methionine + lidocaine	NC	7 weeks	6 sessions	Pain reduction in 90% of pts.
Guazzetti et al. 1988 [37]	Musculoskeletal affections	15	P O	Naproxene, procaine	NC	?	from 3 to 9 mesotherapy	Positive results in 90,5% of pts
Narvarte and Rosset-Llobet 2011 [38]	Osteomuscular disorders	67	P O	Thiocolchicoside diazepam buflomedil piroxicam	NC	4 weeks	from 1 to 18 sessions	Positive efficacy/safety
Capone et al. 1994 [39]	Calcific tendinitis of the shoulder	50	P O C	Disodium EDTA	Mesotherapy versus ionophoresis	24 months	nr	Positive effects with both techniques (80% of patients)
Piantoni et al. 1985 [40]	Osteoporosis	1	CR	Calcitonine	NC	30 days	2 sessions per week	Pain reduction
Currò and Bearzatto 1985 [41]	Postherpetic neuritis	7	P O	NSAIDs and procaine	NC	7 weeks	weekly sessions	Pain reduction in 57% of pts after the first session
Currò et al. 1983 [42]	Degenerative arthrosis in a new acute stage of pain	96	P O	NSAIDs, s-adenosil l-methionine, and procaine	NC	1 year	6 sessions for 1, 2, or 3 cycle in a year	Reduction of pain, drugs consumption (67%), and absences from work (30%)
Biondi et al. 1985 [43]	Tendinitis, scapulohumeral periarthritis	44	P C	Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and mepivacaine	Mepivacaine	5 months	3–6 sessions every 4–8 days	Pain reduction in 90% of pts or recovery in the SOD+anesthetic group versus 33% in the group with the anesthetic alone
Pezone et al. 1986 [44]	Osteoporosis/arthritis	32	P O	Calcitonine	NC	2–10 weeks	weekley sessions	Pain reduction (76.5% of pts) in particular in pts with osteoporosis and arthritis
Solinas et al. 1987 [45]	Tendinopathies	20	P O	Ergoteine	NC	nr	nr	Combination with laser therapy more effective (in term of pain reduction) than traditional therapies
Garzya et al. 1987 [46]	Muscular skeletal pain	100	P O C	NSAIDs and anesthetic	Naproxen, lysine acetylsalicylate, and ketoprofen	52 days	3 session at weekley intervals	Pain reduction; no differences between NSAIDs evaluated.; Pts with cervicodynia and gonalgia received better clinical benefits

The table lists clinical studies or case reports to evaluate the reduction of pain in various clinical conditions. The pain was noted with visual scales.
M: multicentric, R: retrospective, P: prospective, O: open, C: controlled, NC: noncontrolled, CS: case report, and nr: nonreported.