Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Physical Therapy for Neuromuscular and Neurosurgery

Background Neck pain is a musculoskeletal symptom associated with disability and significant economic health costs. Neck pain has been classified as one of the top two largest reasons for disability caused by musculoskeletal pain conditions by the Global Burden of Disease studies. Some investigators assume that proprioception deficit might be a factor predisposing to pain and injury via poor motor control. Understanding the proprioceptive function alterations in the presence of mechanical neck pain thus seems necessary for the evaluation and rehabilitation of these patients.Objective: To determine a relationship between impaired cervicocephalic kinesthetic sensibility and mechanical neck pain characteristics.Methods:Sixty military patients with mechanical neck pain repositioned their heads to the neutral head position and target position in a sagittal, transverse and frontal planes. When the patients reach the reference position, the subject{u2019}s relocation accuracy was measured in degrees using the CROM device.The Northwick neck pain questionnaire (NPQ) has proved to be a useful tool in neck pain studies, correlating with objective measurements of neck pain characteristics. Results:There was a positive correlation between NPQ score and flexion,extension, rotation, right side bending repositioning to neutral, and a negative correlation between NPQ score andleft side bending repositioning to neutral. There was a positive correlation between NPQ score and repositioning error in the head to target position test. There was a positive correlation between pain intensity, duration of symptoms, and flexion repositioning error to neutral

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