Title : Comparative Study of Cervical Traction versus Positional Pain Release Phenomenon in the Management of Non Specific Neck Pain : A Randomised Clinical Trial .
Laiba Naeem
Introduction : Neck pain is one of the commonest musculoskeletal problem and major cause of work disability especially women . 70 % of the population worldwide experiences the problem of neck pain at some points in their lifetime . Nonspecific neck pain can be treated by many manual therapy techniques like cervical traction and cervical compression . This study was designed to find out the effective treatment technique for non-specific neck pain .
Methodology : It was single blind , parallel assignment , single Centre , randomized control trial in which 42 patients were recruited using non probability convenient sampling . The study was conducted after ethical approval from November 2017 to April 2018 . Patients with Age 25-55 years of both Genders , Presenting with complaint of non-specific neck pain and Limitation of Cervical ROM were included while Patients with red flag sign , cervical injury , advanced degenerative changes and altered mental status were excluded . The patients were randomly divided in two groups A and B . Group A was given cervical traction and Group B was given positional pain release phenomenon ( PRPs ). Both groups received neck isometrics and moist heat as baseline treatment . Pre and post treatment readings were observed for pain on VAS , ROM on goniometer and disability in functions on NDI .
Results : VAS showed more significant results for cervical traction with p value less than 0.05 . Whereas NDI showed more significant results for Pain Release Phenomenon with p value less than 0.05 . The results for range of motion were equal for both groups .
Conclusion : It is concluded from the study that cervical traction in patients with non-specific neck pain is a significant treatment outcome on Visual Analogue Scale ( VAS ). When scoring on Neck Disability Index ( NDI ), Pain Release Phenomenon showed more significant results as compare to cervical traction .
Clinical Trial No : IRCT20201031049207N3
Impact : This small scale study may be replicated into larger scale study conducted on multiple centres and larger study population , with some funding opportunity to generate more impactful evidence . More techniques may be considered to be investigated for the treatment of the condition .
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