Increased Cervical Disc Height and Decreased Neck Pain and Disability Following Improvement in Cervical Lordosis and...

Cervical degenerative disc disease (DDD) is associated with decreased disc height, spinal arthrosis, decreased spinal stability, neck pain (NP), and increased years living with disability and global disease burden.

A total of 64 patients (19 males, 45 females) between 23 and 77 years (mean age of 49.05 ± 3.34 years) presented to a private practice with NP and disability. Pre-treatment radiographs revealed decreased cervical curvature (ARA C2-C7) measuring -6.18 ± 3.06° (ideal is -42.0°), anterior head translation (Tz C2-C7) measuring 22.03 ± 2.39 mm (ideal is 0 mm), anterior cervical disc height (ADH C2-C7) measuring 3.68 ± 0.20 mm, and posterior cervical disc height (PDH C2-C7) measuring 3.21 ± 0.15 mm. Pre-treatment NP numeric rating scale (NRS) scored 6.66 ± 0.27, and neck disability index (NDI) scored 40.28 ± 1.42%, indicating moderate disability due to NP. Patients were treated using Chiropractic BioPhysics^® (CBP^®) Mirror Image^® spinal rehabilitation for mean values of 37.80 ± 2.44 treatment visits over 19.48 ± 3.89 weeks at a frequency of 2.89 ± 0.45 treatment visits per week.

Post-treatment radiographs revealed improvements in ARA C2-C7 to -19.95 ± 3.05°, Tz C2-C7 to 12.11 ± 2.34 mm, ADH C2-C7 to 5.19 ± 0.21 mm, and PDH C2-C7 to 4.36 ± 0.16 mm. Post-treatment patient-reported outcomes showed improvements in NP NRS to 1.52 ± 0.26 and NDI to 12.66 ± 0.96, indicating minimal NP and disability.

CBP^® helps improve sagittal cervical spinal alignment and posture, which may help improve cervical disc height and NP and disability in adult patients with cervical DDD.