Comparison of Cyriax manipulation with traditional physical therapy for the management of cervical discogenic problems. A randomized control trail

Abstract

To determine and compare the clinical outcome of Cyriax manipulation and traditional physical therapy for the treatment of cervical discogenic problems in terms of pain, range of motion and disability. The randomised controlled trial was conducted at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from January to June, 2018, and comprised patients having prolapsed intervertebral disc with neck or arm pain who were then randomly allocated into control and experimental groups using the sealed envelope method. The control group received cervical isometrics 10 repetitions ×1 set, 4 days/week and targeted muscle strechings 10 repetition × 1 set/day for 4 days/week. The experimental group received 10 min pre-manipulative massage and Cyriax manipulation protocol. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Of the 40 subjects, there were 20(50%) in each of the two groups. The experimental group showed significance difference in terms of numeric pain rating scale, range of motion and the neck disability index (p<0.05 each). Cyriax manipulation was found to be significantly better than the traditional treatment of physiotherapy for cervical discogenic pain.