Effectiveness of muscle energy technique on cervical range of motion and pain

Every individual in his/her life experiences cervical pain at some stage which may restrict daily activities. Various approaches are available for the management of cervical pain, which include surgical, pharmacological and physical therapy. Different Manual therapy techniques are used for the treatment of neck pain. Muscle energy techniques and active isolated stretching are under consideration. This case series study was conducted at physical therapy department of North West General Hospital, Peshawar from August 2015 to January 2016 to find out the effectiveness of muscles energy techniques on cervical range of motion and pain. A total of 20 patients suffering neck pain, both genders having age of 25 - 50 years, cervical ROM limitation and muscles spasm were included in the study. Patients were treated by muscles energy technique (MET). The patient's outcome measures were Inclinometer and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. The mean age was 32.3±6.53 years. The patient treated with muscles energy technique showed clinically improvement in the range of motion and pain. Results showed that pre and post treatment differences were statistically significant for cervical flexion (0.001), cervical extension (0.001), cervical right side rotation (0.001), cervical left side rotation (0.001), cervical right side bending (0.001), and cervical left side bending (0.01). Paired t-test finding for the pain showed statistically significant difference (0.005). It was concluded that Muscles Energy Technique is effective in the treatment of restricted range of motion and cervical pain.