Effectiveness of an Eye-Cervical Re-education Program (ECRP) to Decrease Pain and Increase Mobility in the Cervical Area Compared to a Combined Physiotherapy Protocol (CPP) in Patients With Chronic Neck Pain Symptoms.

Background:

In Physiotherapy there is a growing interest of authors to clarify the relationship between the visual system and the neck. Aspects such as deficiencies in eye movement during cervical rotation are common disorders in patients who have suffered whiplash trauma or have dizzy syndromes. On the other hand, deep muscle disorders of the neck are related to the decrease in cervical-ocular reflex. Furthermore, some disorders in eye movements in patients with idiopathic neck pain have been identified.

Consequently, a pragmatic approach to multimodal intervention has been recommended to address changes in sensorimotor control at the cervical level. For this purpose, head-neck sensitization exercises (joint position sense training with head relocation), oculo-motor exercises (ie, eye stability, eye-neck coordination) or balance training have been proposed. These programs lead to a sensorimotor control, reducing pain and disability in the neck. However, it is not known if this approach to treatment is a significant improvement when compared to the implementation of other physiotherapy procedures, so it is unknown if the application of training oculocervical proprioception is more advisable than other modalities of physiotherapy treatment for the improvement of CNP symptoms.

Material and method:

This research is an analytical, longitudinal, prospective, experimental, evaluator blinded study. It is controlled with two parallel groups, randomized clinical trial.