EFFECTIVENESS OF MANUAL THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH MECHANICAL NECK PAIN

Abstract

 Manual therapy (MT) is useful to treat patients with mechanical neck pain, but physiological basis of these techniques is still unknown.
  This article is a review of scientific works which have been designed to measure the effectiveness of MT. The selected works include reviews, meta-analysis and randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and they have to fulfill the following criteria: the study population of the work has to be patients with mechanical neck pain, and the work has to be designed in order to measure the effectiveness of MT.
 total of five reviews and four current RCTs were selected and analyzed. The main conclusions are the following: Scientific evidence show MT combined with other treatments are effective for reducing pain in these patients, but effectiveness of MT as exclusive treatment has not been convincingly shown. The combined use of MT reduces pain intensity in 12,6 mm. on a Visual Analogical Scale at short term. The relief of patients with acute mechanical neck pain is higher using MT, but conventional physical therapy is better for patients with chronic mechanical neck pain.
or acute neck pain, mobilizations are better at the first time and manipulations are useful at the second time. Further trials with more and better designs are needed to demonstrate manual therapy effectiveness. Long time follow up is necessary for these studies. Future researchers should be paid much more attention to the methods of study.