Manual Therapy and Exercise With Mixed Reality With Hololens® Exercise Protocol in Chronic Neck Pain Subjects: Clinical Trial

Currently, cervical pain is the second most frequent musculoskeletal disorder, which generates an important impact on the function and quality of life. It is estimated that its anual prevalence for the general population can reach 50%.

Non-specific cervical pain attends without signs or symptoms of structural or neurological pathology, its etiology is unknown. However, it is related with joint and muscular structures. It has been observed a decrease in the strength and endurace of the deep cervical flexor muscles in 70% of patients with cervical pain; as well as motor control déficit and coordination alterations in the sinergy between the activity of the superficial and deep musculature.

Also, phycosocial factors, as for example: behaviors of fear-avoidance, catastrophism, hypervigilancy, psychosocial stress and negative adaptative neuroplastic changes, may have an importante role in chronic musculoskeletal pain.

In the last years, RV has been used in clinical rehabilitation, being a reliable and valid tool, which allows the patient distration to virtual world and they have offered results like: decreased pain and fear of movement and also improvements in motor performance and neuroplasticity processes.

The aim of this single-blinded randomized novel pilot study is to observe the effects generated in motor variables, when a protocol of manual therapy combined with augmented reality as a method of exercise in subjects with non-specific cervical pain is applied; in comparaison with a protocol of manual therapy combined with conventional cervical exercises.

Different variables will be measured at the beginning and at the end of intervention. Also, they will be measured one month after the intervention to observe the changes produced in short term. These variables are: pain, function, satisfaction, propioception, endurance, as well as phychological and somatosensory variables.