[Multimodal therapy patients with chronic cervical and lumbar pain. Results of a comparative prospective study]

Abstract

Background: Multimodal therapy has been established for patients with chronic low back pain, but studies reporting results in patients with chronic neck pain are rare.

Methods: This prospective clinical study compared the results in 97 patients with chronic cervical pain and 231 patients with chronic lumbar pain after three weeks of multimodal therapy. The following factors were analyzed in both groups at the beginning and after 6 months: ability to work, pain intensity and functional back capacity.

Results: Both groups had improved significantly after 6 months in all outcome parameters. Functional back capacity and ability to work at 6 months were not different between the two groups, but pain intensity was significantly lower in patients with low back pain compared to patients with neck pain.

Conclusion: Multimodal therapy is also an efficient treatment strategy for patients with chronic cervical pain as has already been shown for patients with chronic lumbar pain.