Spinal Mobilization and PNF Comparison on Pain, Disability in Patients With Cervical Radiculopathy

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Cervical Radiculopathy

• Registration Number: NCT06866821
• Lead Sponsor: Riphah International University

Brief Summary

As in this modern era of digitalization; mobile phones, touch pads and computers devices use is increasing, neck pain that radiates into upper limb is also becoming common due to such devices long term use in bad postures or positions for more workload. The resulted findings could significantly contribute to the refinement of rehabilitation interventions, offering a more holistic and tailored approach for addressing cervical radiculopathy sensory and motor symptoms, ultimately improving individuals daily living activities and life quality. It will be helpful for physiotherapists to find evidence about comparison of mulligan's spinal mobilization along with arm movement with proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation technique on pain, disability and range of motion in patients with cervical radiculopathy. It will be beneficial for patients also to improve pain, activities of daily living and working tasks in a comfortable position.

Detailed Description

Cervical radiculopathy is a clinical situation in which reflex, motor, and sensory alterations e.g. radicular pain, paresthesia, or numbness might be present and might be increased by neck bad postures and movements. Due to sustained forward head and neck posture and repetitive movements, cervical pain and numbness is becoming common in office, bank and online workers. The cervical radiculopathy new cases report yearly is almost 107.3 per 1 lac for men and 63.5 per 1 lac for women. It is essential to find new efficient methods of cervical radiculopathy physical therapy management.

Males and females of age 21-50 years old added in this study. Screening tests will include upper limb tension tests (ULTT), spurling (compression) test and distraction test. Subjects randomly assigned into two groups by lottery method. Experimental group (N=19) received Mulligan's spinal mobilization with arm movements (SMWAMs) and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) contract-relax technique and control group (N=19) received Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) contract-relax technique and standard physical therapy protocol including passive stretching exercises (3 sets of 10 repetitions) and isometric strengthening exercises (2 sets of 10 repetitions). Outcome measures included numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) for pain, neck disability index (NDI) for functional disability and goniometer for range of motion (ROM). Data analyzed by statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 26) software.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2024-01-12
• Primary Completion: 2025-02-21
• Study Completion: 2025-02-21
• Status Verified: 2025-03
• Study First Submitted: 2025-03-04
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-03-04
• Study First Posted: 2025-03-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-03-10
• Last Update Posted: 2025-03-12

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 38

Inclusion Criteria

• Both males, females of 21 years to 50 years old
• Patients already diagnosed by orthopedicians
• Patients with positive screening (upper limb tension, spurling & distraction) tests

Exclusion Criteria

• History of trauma, fracture and previous surgery
• Any pathological condition, spinal instability and tumor
• VBI (Vertebral-Basillar Insufficiency) and cervical instability/spondylolisthesis

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Pain by Numeric Pain Rating Scale	6 weeks	This was used for pain intensity assessment. Patient rested on stool or chair and ordered to score resting pain extent in between 0 and 10 range; 0 means without pain and 10 means much high pain as possible in 10cm numbers line.
Neck level of disability by Neck Disability Index	6 weeks	Neck disability Index was used for functional disability of neck assessment. NDI is a 10-items questionnaire that assesses the effect of neck signs and symptoms on daily living functional activities. Every item is marked from range 0 to 5, along with total score from 0 to 50 range and maximum scores means maximum disability. NDI has reliability acceptable in the self-perceptual disability assessment and an MCID (minimal clinically important difference) of 8.5 points in cervical radiculopathy patients.
Cervical Range of Motion by Goniometer	6 weeks	Goniometer was used for active cervical spine range of the motion (flexion, extension, rotation, side bending) assessment. Side bending, rotation measured on the symptomatic and asymptomatic both sides.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Riphah International University; 🇵🇰 Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan