Effect of Neural Tissue Mobilization on Pain in Cervical Radiculopathy Patients

Background: Cervical radiculopathy is a dysfunction of a nerve ischolar_main of the cervical spine. The seventh (C7; 60%) and sixth (C6 25%) cervical nerve ischolar_mains are the most commonly affected. In the younger population, cervical radiculopathy is a result of a disc herniation or an acute injury causing foraminal impingement of exiting nerve. Disc herniation accounts for 20-25% of the cases of cervical radiculopathy. In the older patient, cervical radiculopathy is often a result of foraminal narrowing from osteophyte formation, decreased disc space, degenerative changes of the uncovertebral joints anteriorly and of the facet joint posteriorly.

Objective: To study the effectiveness of Neural tissue Mobilization in relieving pain in patients with cervical radiculopathy.

Materials & Method: Study included 30 (Thirty) patients with Chronic case of cervical radiculopathy between age group of 30-60 years. The patients were treated for a period of 10 days, 6 days a week once daily. Pain was assessed by Visual Analogue Scale and Functional Disability was measured by Neck Disability Index Scale. Experimental group received neural mobilization and conventional therapy while control group received conventional therapy alone.

Results: The results were analyzed by Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and paired t-test. Group A showed significant improvement in Pain (T= 120, p < 0.01) Comparision of Group A and Group B was done with Wilcoxon Rank sum test ( Mann Whitney U test ) . Results showed significant improvement in Pain (Z = 4.35 , p <0.0001) Conclusion: Neural mobilization along with other conventional therapy may be useful in bringing about improvement in pain and functional disability in patients with cervical radiculopathy.