Objective To observe the clinical effect of physical rehabilitation massage for postpartum diastasis recti abdominis (DRA).

Methods A total of 103 patients with DRA were recruited in experimental group, and were treated with physical rehabilitation massage process for postpartum DRA. Another 104 patients with postpartum DRA were recruited in control group, and were treated with traditional physical rehabilitation. The distance between the rectus abdominis muscles at the midline, basic cure rate, symptom disappearance rate and patients′satisfaction rate before and after treatment were observed and compared between the two groups.

Results Before treatment (6 weeks after delivery), there was no significant difference in distance between the rectus abdominis muscles between the two groups (P>0.05). At 2 and 4 weeks of treatment, the spacing of rectus abdominis muscle in the two groups was smaller than that before treatment, and was smaller in the experimental group than that of the control group (P < 0.05). At 4 weeks of treatment, the distance between rectus abdominis muscles in the two groups was smaller than that at 2 weeks of treatment, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The basic healing rates of patients with moderate DRA (rectus abdominis distance >5 to 7 cm) were 88.9% and 100.0% in the experimental group, which were higher than 36.4% and 81.8% in the control group(P < 0.01 or P < 0.05). After 2 weeks of treatment, the symptom disappearance rate of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The total symptom disappearance rate and patients′satisfaction rate of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group, but there were no significant differences (P>0.05).

Conclusion Physical rehabilitation massage for postpartum DRA according to anatomical and physiological characteristics, biomechanics, pathogenesis, repair mechanism and meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine can standardize the postpartum DRA manual massage and physical therapy program, improve the efficacy of patients with postpartum DRA, and also provide an example for promoting the scientific and standardized clinical operation.