Immediate Effects of Upper Cervical Translatoric Mobilization on Cervical Mobility and Pressure Pain Threshold in Patients With Cervicogenic Headache: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Upper cervical translatoric spinal mobilization intervention increased upper, and exhibited a tendency to improve general, cervical range of motion and induce immediate headache relief in subjects with CEH.

Does the Addition of Manual Therapy Approach to a Cervical Exercise Program Improve Clinical Outcomes for Patients with Chronic Neck Pain in Short- and Mid-Term? A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…These results regarding pain alleviation are similar to the studies that found improvements in cervical pain in MT + E groups [7,60], although studies with an isolated manual therapy approach [12] and exercise [61] have also shown a reduction in cervical pain. Considering pressure pain threshold variables, previous studies did not identify any difference when applying manual therapy alone [23,62]. Our MT + E was more effective than the exercise group, showing similar results to Celenay et al, 2016 [5], although other authors found no difference between groups [41,46].…”

“…The manual therapy approach aimed to restore the mobility of the upper cervical joints by treating occipital-atlas (C0-1) and axis-C3 (C2-3) and then, if necessary, atlas-axis (C1-2) segment. Apart from treating directly C1-2 [8], the application of manual therapy in C0-1 and C2-3 [8,23,51,52] has been shown to improve the flexion rotation test. Our manual therapy approach followed international safety recommendations promoting the indirect treatment of the segment with more dysfunction (in this case, C1-2) and avoiding end-range procedures [19].…”

“…The subject was in the supine position, and the evaluator passively moved the patient's cervical spine to its maximum flexion and then rotated the head to the right and left side with the occiput resting against the evaluator's abdomen. The movement stopped at whichever situation occurred first, either the subject presented symptoms, or a firm end feel was encountered [13,23]. A CROM device (floating compass; Plastimo Airguide, Inc, Buffalo Groove, IL, USA) was used, and three measurements were taken for each rotation, with the result being the mean of the three measurements [20].…”

“…The mean of three trials was calculated over each point and used for analysis. Pressure pain threshold measurements have a high reliability (ICC = 0.92-0.99) [23,30,31].…”

Immediate and Short-Term Effects of Upper Cervical High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Manipulation on Standing Postural Control and Cervical Mobility in Chronic Nonspecific Neck Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In our results, we observed an increase of 7.41° in the post-immediate measurement, 6.82° on the 7th day, and 6.14° on the 15th day; therefore, we can consider them as clinically important. They are similar to those published by Malo-Urries et al [ 57 ], with an increase in the CFRT of 7.3° after upper cervical translatoric mobilization, and also similar to those published by Dunning et al [ 34 ], where they obtained a change between 5.9° and 8.4° with upper cervical and upper thoracic manipulation, versus non-thrust mobilization with smaller changes (between 2.5° and 3.5°). However, those last data with mobilization technique do not agree with those obtained by Mohamed et al [ 55 ] with the SNAG rotation technique on C1-C2 and a 15.3° increase immediately after the intervention.…”