Impact of dexamethasone phonophoresis therapy on patients with cervical radiculopathy / Ahmed Karem Youssef Tawfik ; Supervised Nawal Abdelraouf Abushady , Shihab Mohamed Alkhadrawi

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

Background: Cervical radiculopathy (CR) is a common cause of axial neck and arm pain. It is characterized by symptoms that radiate to the upper extremities in a dermatomal distribution. Nerve root impingement can be secondary to an acute disc herniation, or also from chronic spondylosis.Aim of study : To investigate the effect of dexamethasone Phonophoresis (DxPh) Therapy on pain , range of motion and physical performance of patients with cervical radiculopathy. Subjects: Thirty Patients (16 males and 14 females) with unilateral chronic cervical radiculopathy.The duration of symptoms was more than three months.Their ages ranged from 35 to 55 years. Method of allocation: They were randomly assigned to one of two groups using a secure system of opaque closed envelopes that was assigned as group A (study) and group B (control).The study group (A) 15 Patients( 8males and 7 females ) received dexamethasone Phonophoresis (DxPh) in addition to a conventional physical therapy program and the control group (B) 15 Patients( 8males and7 females received a placebo (sham) dexamethasone Phonophoresis (DxPh) in addition to the same conventional physical therapy program. Duration of treatment: was 3 sessions(45min per session)/week, every other day for four weeks. Methods: Each patient of both groups was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS)to assess pain intensity , CROM device to assess cervical range of motion and Neck disability index (NDI) to measure the patient{u2019}s functional disability and pain before and after four weeks of treatment. Results: In the present study there was a statistically significant increase of the mean values of the cervical ROM. Also, there was a statistically significant decrease of the mean values of VAS and NDI in the study group compared to the control group post treatment

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