Background: Neck pain is a common musculoskeletal complaint with tremendous impact on
health and quality of life. Neck pain also leads to pulmonary function restrictive disorder. Aim:
This study aimed to investigate the effect of deep cervical muscle training using pressure biofeedback
device on ventilatory functions in patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. Subjects: Forty
subjects of both sexes with mean age 24.8± 1.87 years were participated in this study. They were
divided into two groups equal in number; the study group (A) and the control group (B) who were
suffering from chronic mechanical neck pain. Methods: Group A received deep cervical flexor
strengthening exercises and traditional physical therapy modalities. Group B received only traditional
physical therapy modalities. Both groups were assessed using the neck disability index questionnaire
for functional disability, visual analogue scale for pain intensity, craniocervical flexion test for deep
cervical flexor muscle strength and spirometric tests for ventilatory functions. Patients were assessed
before and after treatment. Results: The results of this study showed that there was significant
improvement in craniocervical flexion test, maximum voluntary ventilation and peak expiratory flow
rate in the study group only (p = 0.0001). There was a statistically significant improvement in
neck disability index (p = 0.0001), visual analogue scale (p= 0.0001), forced vital capacity (p =
0.002) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (p= 0.01) in both groups, however, there
was no statistically significant difference between both groups. Conclusion: It is concluded that deep
cervical flexor strengthening exercise combined with traditional physical therapy modalities have
better clinical effects on the mechanical neck pain and ventilatory functions than traditional physical
therapy modalities alone in patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. |
