Admittedly, we didn’t have to search too hard to find this particular Abstract of the Week, as its authors include NAIOMT faculty. Thus, it goes without saying that we find this an important topic to research, read about and discuss.
The effect of direction specific thoracic spine manipulation on the cervical spine: a randomized controlled trial by Steve Karas, Megan J. Olson Hunt, Bill Temes, Martin Thiel, Trenton Swoverland & Brett Windsor.
Evidence exists that thoracic spine manipulation is effective in treating neck pain. This study was done to determine the difference on neck outcomes with directional manipulation to the thoracic spine. Sixty-nine patients with neck pain were assigned to either a matched group where manipulation was performed to the most hypomobile thoracic segment in the same direction of thoracic motion loss or unmatched group who receive manipulation opposite their thoracic motion loss.
Outcome measures included neck pain rating scale, neck disability index and global rating of change at initial treatment, two days later and subsequently at two weeks. Results indicated that both groups had positive results in regards to pain, global rating of change and neck disability index, however, there was no difference in the amount of improvement between the treatment groups. Matching of directional mobilization appears to have had no effect on the outcomes tracked.
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*Abstract of the Week Shared by NAIOMT instructor William Temes,PT, MS, OCS, COMT, FAAOMPT
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