[Efficacy of cervical fixed-point traction manipulation for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: a randomized controlled trial]

Abstract

Background: Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy is a commonly encountered and frequently occurring disease. Traditional Chinese osteopathic manipulations may have better therapeutic efficacy than that of other methods in treating patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical therapeutic effects of cervical fixed-point traction manipulation in treating patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.

Design, setting, participants and interventions: A prospective, randomized controlled trial was adopted. Eighty-four patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy were randomly divided into treatment group (n=42) and control group (n=42). All patients were enrolled from the outpatient service of Department of Rehabilitation of Chinese PLA General Hospital of China. Patients received oral and written information about clinical procedures before giving their written informed consent. The patients were treated with cervical fixed-point traction manipulation (treatment group) or cervical computer traction (control group). Cervical fixed-point traction was performed once every other day for a total of seven treatment periods and cervical computer traction was performed 30 min, once per day for 14 d.

Main outcome measures: Before and after treatment, visual analogue scale (VAS) score and temperature of upper limb skin (normal limb and abnormal limb) detected by infrared thermal imaging system were contrastively analyzed.

Results: Five patients were lost to follow-up, one patient in the treatment group and four patients in the control group. There were significant differences in VAS score and temperature difference between the normal and abnormal upper limbs of infrared thermal imaging in the treatment group (t=28.652, P<0.01; t=64.214, P<0.01) or in the control group (t=14.484, P<0.05; t=84.425, P<0.05) compared between before and after treatment. After treatment, the changes in VAS score and temperature difference of normal and abnormal upper limbs in the treatment group were more obvious compared with the control group (t=7.494, P<0.01; t=5.321, P<0.01).

Conclusion: Cervical fixed-point traction manipulation has better efficacy than cervical computer traction in treating patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.