THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DEEP TRANSVERSE FRICTION MASSAGE FOR THE TREATMENT OF MEDIAL MENISCOTIBIAL LIGAMENT INJURY IN A FEMALE FOOTBALL PLAYER: A CASE STUDY

Background
The injury to medial meniscotibial ligament (MTL) is a cause of pain in the medial articulatio genus which is rarely discussed in the literature. The paper examines the effectiveness of deep transverse friction massage (DTFM) in the treatment of injury to the medial meniscus-tibial ligament in a female football player.

Material and methods
A case study concerned a patient (22 years old) who is a football player on the position of striker. She has been complaining about the pain in the right, medial articulatio genus for five days. Deep transverse friction massage (DTFM) was applied in the treatment. A total of 9 procedures was conducted (3 times a week) throughout three weeks. The first DTFM session lasted 2 minutes and the time was systematically extended during further sessions until it reached 15 minutes. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), modified Laitinen Pain Questionnaire and countermovement jump test (CMJ) on the dynamometric platform were applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment.

Results
Having completed the treatment, a decrease of pain measured by the means of VAS and Laitinen Pain Questionnaire was reported. There was also improvement in limb symmetry index in all phases of the test carried out on the dynamometric platform.

Conclusions
The results demonstrate that DTFM may be an effective method of treatment for MTL injuries. Conducting further research on a bigger study group is necessary.