The effect of scapular retractors strenghtening exercises on chronic mechanical neck pain / Dalia Mostafa Ibrahim Mahmoud ; Supervised Nadia Abdelazim Fayaz , Ebtessam Fawzy Gomaa , Ahmad Hamdi Azzam

Thesis (M.Sc) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Musculoskeletal Disorders

Introduction: Mechanical neck pain is a significant societal burden and may include symptoms in the neck and upper extremity. It has been reported that the lifetime and point prevalence of neck pain are almost as high as those of low back pain. Scapular postural correction strategies have been advocated as part of the intervention for patients with neck pain who display an alteration in scapular orientation affecting the head posture. Objective: the purpose of this study was to investigate if scapular retractors strengthening exercise had an effect on pain, function and posture in patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. Methods: The study was conducted on thirty patients; their age was between 18-40 years old. The patients were assigned randomly into two equal groups. Experimental group (A); in which 15 patients with mean ± SD age and BMI were 26.73 ± 4.71 years and 25.8 ± 3.25 kg/m² respectively, were treated with scapular retractors strengthening program with the same traditional physical therapy received for the second group for 18 sessions over 6 weeks period.; Whereas control group (B); 15 patients with mean ± SD age and BMI were 28.53 ± 6.93 years and 26.53 ± 3.18 kg/m² respectively ,were treated with only the traditional physical therapy treatment in the form of (infrared, activation of deep neck flexors, isometric exercises, and stretching exercises).Results: statistics showed that there was no significant difference in the VAS, NDI,CVA and SHA post treatment between the study and control groups (p = 0.69), (p = 0.715),(p = 0.107), (p = 0.3) respectively

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