I’ll readily admit that I didn’t have time to write this week. It’s been a hard month for me, avoiding death twice. Therefore, I borrowed from some of my previous research writings from the ladt year. Enjoy.
Cleland JA, Childs JD, Fritz JM, et al. Development of a clinical prediction rule for guiding treatment of a subgroup of patients with neck pain: use of thoracic spine manipulation, exercise, and patient education. Phys Ther. 2007;87(1):9-23.
Inherently lower risk of serious complications, thoracic spine thrust manipulation might be a suitable alternative, or supplement, to cervical spine thrust manipulation.
PURPOSE:
To develop a CPR to identify patients with neck pain who are likely to benefit from
thoracic spine thrust manipulation based on a reference standard of patient-reported improvement
MATERIALS AND METHODS
prospective cohort study of consecutive patients with mechanical neck pain
Inclusion criteria
b/t 18 and 60
primary complaint of neck pain
with or without unilateral upper-extremity symptoms
baseline NDI of at least 10%
Exclusion criteria
identification of red flags
h/o whiplash within 6 weeks of the examination
diagnosis of cervical spinal stenosis,
evidence of any central nervous system involvement
s/s of nerve root compression (at least 2 of the following)
myotomal
dermatomal
reflexes
THERAPISTS:
4 PT’s underwent standardized training regimen with a mean of 12.3 y/o experience
EXAM PROCEDURES
Self-report measures
body diagram
NPRS
NDI
FAQ
Evaluation
mode of onset, nature and location of symptoms, aggravating and relieving
factors, prior history of neck pain
Neuro screen
Postural assessment
Cervical ROM
symptom response
length and strength of muscles of the upper quarter and endurance of the
deep neck flexors
Special tests
Spurling
Distraction
Roos
ULTT
TREATMENT:
all treatment standardized
Each subject received 3 different thrust techniques to the T/S twice per session
seated distraction
supine upper thoracic spine manipulation
Middle thoracic spine manipulation
Cervical ROM exercise
10 reps 3-4x/day
fingers on chest and chin on fingers (rotation bilaterally)
GROC with a score of +5 categorized as a successful outcome
high threshold was authors’ way of attempting to isolate the treatment for
improvement (VG: there still may be rapid responders without treatment
or with a separate treatment)
Those without a +5 GROC score were treated for a second session with thrust
manipulations as in the first treatment, with a f/u in 2-4 days.
Those that didn’t reach +5 were then seen as unsuccessful. At this point, the
study was complete and treatment was administered as per their PT.
DATA ANALYSIS:
Sensitivity, Specificity, and positive likelihood ratios (LR’s) were calculated for
those variables that reached significance at a P<.10.
RESULTS:
80 subjects recruited and 2 subjects dropped out of the study
23 subjects reported “successful” outcome based on GROC after the first session.
19 after session 2 (42/78)
“successful” outcome group was significantly better with both pain and
disability than the “unsuccessful” group.
6 potential variables based on data analysis are as follows:
No symptoms distal to the shoulder
looking up does not aggravate symptoms
<30 days since onset of injury
<30 degrees of cervical extension
FABQPA < 12
diminished upper thoracic spine kyphosis
14/15 subjects + on 4/6 criteria and 32/37 subjects + on 3/6
all had successful outcomes
+LR for 4/6 + variables is 12.0 and post-test probability of success is 93%
+ LR for 3/6 + variables is 5.5 with post-test probability of success at 86%
DISCUSSION:
Clinicians should look for at least 3/6 variables in order to guide the utilization of
the CPR.
CPR is able to a priori determine who may benefit most from T/S thrust
manipulations
fulfilled the purpose of creating a CPR and the authors note that additional studies
should be performed to validate the study with a long-term analysis and utilizing an RCT comparison group.
Clinician perspective: This was a well-run initial study. Without validation, I would utilize the CPR should the patient not respond to an assessment/treatment approach that was not demonstrating improvement. In hindsight, this CPR was not validated. Many patients rapidly responded to the manipulation. As a clinician, I would still keep this in mind when treating patients that were not responding to a preset treatment paradigm. There are some questionable actions in this study, for instance, I can’t remember ever using a Roo’s test for someone with cervical complaints, as this is a test for TOS.