The effects of neck mobilization in patients with chronic neck pain: A randomized controlled trial

Publication date: Available online 4 March 2017
Source:Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies
Author(s): Muhammad Nazim Farooq, Mohammad A. Mohseni-Bandpei, Syed Amir Gilani, Muhammad Ashfaq, Qamar Mahmood
ObjectiveTo determine the effect of mobilization and routine physiotherapy on pain, disability, neck range of motion (ROM) and neck muscle endurance (NME) in patients having chronic mechanical neck pain (NP).MethodsSixty eight patients with chronic mechanical NP were randomly allocated into two groups by using a computer generated random sequence table with 34 patients in the multi-modal mobilization group and 34 patients in the routine physiotherapy group. Baseline values for pain, disability, NME, and neck ROM were recorded using visual analogue scale (VAS), neck disability index (NDI), neck flexor muscle endurance test and universal goniometer respectively, before the treatment. Each patient received 10 treatment sessions over a period of four weeks and at the end of four weeks all the outcome measures were recorded again.ResultsA paired t-test revealed significant pre to post treatment differences for all outcome measures in both groups (p < 0.001 in all instances). An independent t-test revealed statistically significant differences for pain, disability, NME, and neck rotation in favor of the multi-modal mobilization group with a between group difference of 1.57 cm for VAS (p < 0.001), 11.74 points for NDI (p = 0.001), 18.45 seconds for NME (p < 0.001) and 6.06 to 8.24 degrees for neck ROM (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe results suggest that a combination of cervical mobilization with routine physiotherapy is more effective for reducing pain and disability and improving NME and neck ROM in patients with chronic mechanical NP compared to routine physiotherapy alone.



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