Effectiveness Of Cervical Manipulative Therapy In Patients With Mechanical Neck Pain And The Effect On Sleep PDF Download

The major part of the thesis involved in a randomized controlled clinical trial undertaken to investigate the effects of cervical manual therapy (mobilization and manipulation) on patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. One hundred and forty-seven patients were recruited from the Physiotherapy Department, Prince of Wales Hospital and randomized into a manual therapy (MT) group and a control (CON) group. The age range of the MT group was from 19 to 66 (mean age 46.6℗ł10.0) and that of the CON group was from 23 to 63 (mean age 45.5℗ł9.5). The patients in the MT group received manual therapy, 15-minutes of irradiation therapy (IRR) together with neck exercises listed in a neck exercise pamphlet, whereas those in the CON group only received IRR and neck exercises. All patients received 8 sessions of treatment over a 4-week interval. The outcome measures included subjective pain intensity (NPRS), neck disability (NPQ), cervical ROM, HRA and postural stability (BBS). Assessments were made by a blinded assessor at baseline, immediately post-intervention (completion of 8 sessions of treatment), 3 months and 6 months after completion of treatment. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in any of the outcome measures in the baseline comparison. After 8 sessions of intervention over a 4-week period, patients in the MT group had realized greater improvement than those in the CON group in cervical ROM (12.85% vs. 1.11%), HRA (25% vs. 3.32%), postural stability (BBS) (38.3% vs. 17.19%) and NPRS (38.9% vs. 10.2%) (p