ABSTRACT

The effect of treatment method on functional changes and muscle activity in patients with
nonspecific neck pain

Jung, Si Hwa
Department of Sports Medicine
Graduate school of Biomedical Science
Korea University

The people in the modern age develop many lesions in the neck due to fatigue, overload, and accident in the cervical spine due to the environmental factors and lack of exercise living in the information age with a sedentary lifestyle.
Causes of neck pain can be classified into specific and nonspecific neck pain, and nonspecific neck pain is caused by habitual postures or degenerative problems, etc.
Neck pain can cause the pain and tenderness and the restricted cephalic and cervical range of motion, in the event of muscle tension around the neck and the breakdown of the normal head-neck posture maintenance. The purpose of this treatment is to restore the movement of joints and improve the function of the neck by reducing pain and the tension of damaged muscles. Therefore, the myofascial release(MFR), stabilization exercise, and conservative physical therapy are the treatments to eliminate the factors that cause pain.
Accordingly, this study aims to determine the effects of MFR, stabilization exercise, and conservative physical therapy on functional changes, such as pain, cervical range of motion, neck disability index (NDI), and muscle activity of the neck using surface EMG.
This study was conducted with 10 patients for MFR, 10 patients for stabilization exercise, and 10 patients for conservative physical therapy. Among the three groups, the MFR group was treated with 30-minute MFR in the neck, the stabilization exercise group was treated with 30-minute stabilization exercise in the neck, and the conservative physical therapy group was treated with 30-minute heat, electrical therapy, and ultrasound therapy. All three groups were treated three times a week for four weeks. In order to determine the effects of treatment methods of MFR, stabilization exercise, and conservative physical therapy on cervical range of motion, neck disability index and muscle activity, the changes in these factors between pre and post treatment were measured and the results of the analysis of each measurement are as follows.

1) Functional changes in the neck
(1) Pain
The results of comparison in VAS of patients with nonspecific neck pain among treatment methods showed that the decrease between pre and post treatment was statistically significant in MFR, cervical stabilization exercise, and conservative physical therapy groups (p<0.01).

(2) Cervical range of motion
The results of comparison in cervical range of motion of patients with nonspecific neck pain among treatment methods showed that the increase between pre and post treatment in flexion, extension, left flexion, right flexion, left rotation, and right rotation of cervical spine was statistically significant in MFR, cervical stabilization exercise, and conservative physical therapy groups (p<.01).

(3) Neck disability index
The results of comparison in NDI of patients with nonspecific neck pain among treatment methods showed that the decrease between pre and post treatment was statistically significant in MFR, cervical stabilization exercise, and conservative physical therapy groups (p<0.01).

2) Muscle Activity
The results of comparison in muscle activity of patients with nonspecific neck pain among treatment methods showed that the increase between pre and post treatment in the muscle activity of left and right sternocleidomastoid during cervical spine flexion was statistically significant in MFR and cervical stabilization exercise groups (p<.01), but not in conservative physical therapy group (p>.05). In addition, the increase between pre and post treatment in the muscle activity of left and right upper trapezius during shoulder elevation was statistically significant in MFR and cervical stabilization exercise groups (p<0.01), but no in conservative physical therapy group (p>.05).