Effectiveness of Mulligans Segmental Lumbar Traction on Pain and Disability in Lumbar Radiculopathy

Lumbar radiculopathy (LR) is a clinical syndrome characterized by radicular pain, sensory disturbances, and motor weakness in the distribution of a single lumbar or sacral nerve root. This pain typically radiates along a dermatomal pattern corresponding to the affected nerve root and is often accompanied by dermatomal sensory abnormalities, such as paresthesia and hypoesthesia, and/or tendon reflex changes with prevalence of LR documented as high as 25% of all lower back pain (LBP) cases.

Referred symptoms, including pain, cause more significant disability when compared to local pain alone hence, LR directly affects the functional ability and quality of life of an individual.

Existing research suggests, the potential of Mulligan manual therapy in managing and improving the functional ability in radicular pain, both alone and in conjunction with conventional therapies. While studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in decreasing pain for cervical radiculopathy through the application of segmental manual traction, its efficacy for lumbar radiculopathy remains largely unexplored, warranting further investigation.

Patients will be selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. They will be divided into 2 groups with the help of randomization software. One group will receive Manual Traction on the lumbar region based on Mulligan’s Mobilization along with Conventional Therapy for 6 sessions over 1 week. The other group which is the control, will receive conventional therapy only.

The outcome measurements will be done by Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) version 2.1a, Body Diagram by Werneke and SLR test ranges. Variation in the pre and post outcome measure will help us to find out the effectiveness of mulligan’s segmental lumbar traction on pain and disability in lumbar radiculopathy.