Effectiveness of the Suboccipital Inhibition Technique in Patients With Mechanical Neck Pain: a Pilot Study

The project is based on checking the effectiveness of the technique of suboccipital inhibition in patients with mechanical neck pain. Suboccipital inhibition technique involves the placement of the hands of the physiotherapist under the patient's head so that fingers can feel the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae. Then the fingers slowly leads upward to contact the occipital condyles. At this point the investigator should gently move your fingers down, finding the space between the condyles and the spinous process of the axis. Then, flexing the metacarpophalangeal joints at 90 degrees, slowly raises the skull. In this technique the investigator would be carrying out the relaxation of the suboccipital muscles: lower rectus capitis posterior, superior oblique head straight back and head higher. It is a technique used very often but without knowledge about the time needed for implementation. In several studies that have used the technique it has been maintained for 2.4 or 10 minutes without agreeing how long is necessary. The study will consist of three groups formed by patients with mechanical neck pain that they applied the technique two, four or ten minutes and a control group of patients with mechanical neck pain. The four groups were measured before and after treatment the pain threshold to pressure by algometer and conduct the test repositioning of the head to show any changes after application of the technique.