Effectiveness of Neuromuscular Taping on Balance, Proprioception, Pain, and Nerve Conduction Parameters in Patients with Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: A Two-Group Pretest-Posttest Randomized Sham-Controlled Trial: A Pilot Study

Aim: Neuromuscular Taping (NMT) is the application of elastic adhesive tape to the skin without any tension in it. NMT creates wrinkles on the surface of the skin to help stretch the skin passively and this elongation force assists in muscle contraction and relaxation. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of NMT in the improvement of sensorimotor complications following diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Setting and Design: A randomized controlled trial performed at a tertiary health care center. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 participants were recruited and were divided into two groups: The experimental group (EG; N = 10) and the control group (CG; N = 10). Eight weeks of physiotherapy intervention including NMT on bilateral tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, peroneus longus muscles, transverse arch of the foot, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on the course of bilateral tibial and peroneal nerves for EG. CG received sham taping and TENS as an EG group. The patients were assessed for pre- and post-intervention using the outcomes: Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Signs and Symptoms and nerve conduction velocity of tibial, peroneal, and sural nerves and H-reflex, Berg Balance Scale, and Pedalo-Sensamove Mini Board. Results: The results revealed that both the groups showed significant improvements in all variables except for the H-reflex of the right and left sides at P > 0.05. EG showed more clinical and symptomatic improvement compared with CG. In EG, most of the variables showed moderate to large effect sizes ranging from 0.66 to 0.97 except for bilateral H-reflex; ranging from 0.15 to 0.33. Conclusion: This study concludes that NMT can be a trustworthy approach to treating DPN.