Efficacy of Spinal Mobilization with Arm movements (SMWAMs) in Mechanical Neck pain patients: Case-Controlled Trial.

Abstract

Abstract: Neck pain is becoming increasingly prevalent in society. Estimations indicated that 67% of individuals will suffer neck pain at some stage throughout life. Neck pain is a major problem in the society, with an increasing sedentary population especially with reliance on technology in the work place. Both manual therapy and exercise therapy are known to have beneficial effects on neck pain. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of spinal mobilization with arm movements (SMWAMS), a technique of Mulligan concept, in patients with mechanical neck pain. Methods: 30 participants of mechanical neck pain were selected by simple random sampling and were allocated to two groups, 6 treatment sessions over a period of 2 weeks were given. One group received SMWAMs with supervised neck exercise program, while the other group received only supervised exercise program. Both groups received deep neck flexor training with pressure biofeedback (PBF) unit. The Neck pain and Disability scale, patient specific functional scale and global rate of change scale scores along with cervical range of motion were outcome measures assessed in pre and post assessment. Statistical comparison within group and between the groups was made. Result: Post intervention of 2 weeks, the subjects in the Experimental group had a significantly better improvement in pain and disability scores (P -0.0142) and improved patient specific function (P-0.0159) than the control group. Conclusion: The present study indicates that Spinal mobilization with arm movements (SMWAMs) was more effective than supervised exercise program, in reduction of pain, disability and improvement of functional ability.