Objective: To determine the effect of neural mobilization with or without soft tissue mobilization in cervical radiculopathy on pain scale

Methods: RCT was conducted at physical therapy Department of IIRS Isra University, Islamabad Campus and Department of Physiotherapy Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi. 30 patients of age 18 to 55 year with spurling’s test positive and had radiating pain in one of the upper limbs more than 3 months were selected randomly from general population. Participants were randomly divided into two groups; each with 15 participants through lottery method. The experimental group I received cervical traction, hot pack, neural mobilization techniques and post isometric relaxation techniques. The experimental group II received cervical traction, hot pack and neural mobilization techniques. General health was assessed at the start of study through self-structured questionnaire; it included working hours in a day, how much time participant spend on gadgets, participant feeling difficulty during using gadgets etc. Data was compared at baseline and during and after the intervention. Intervention-induced changes within the groups were investigated using paired sample t-test while independent sample t-test was used to compare the two groups.

Results: Study population included 6 males and 54 females. Mean age of experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 was 37.2  SD ± 9.2. Mean body mass Index of  group 1 and group 2 was 2.8 SD ± .69. Mean of working hours in a day of group 1 and 2 was 7.0 with SD ± 2.3. Mean of how much time participant spend on gadgets (minutes) of experimental group 1 and 2 was 99.9 SD ± 108.4. Mean of participant feeling difficulty during using gadgets of experimental group 1 and  2 was 1.4 with SD ± 0.5. NPRS results show that there is statistically significant (p<0.05) difference within and between groups at end of session.

Conclusion: Neural mobilization with soft tissue mobilization is significantly more effective than neural mobilization without soft tissue mobilization for the treatment of cervical radiculopathy. 

Indexed terms_ Neural mobilization, soft tissue mobilization and cervical radiculopathy