NCT06926738

Effect of Upper Thoracic Manipulation on Neck Pain and Selected Muscle Activities

Effect of Upper Thoracic Spine Manipulation on Cervical Symptoms and Selected Muscle Activities in Chronic Mechanical Neck Pain

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 42 (actual)
• Sponsor: Cairo University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study will investigate the immediate and short-term effects of upper thoracic manipulation versus sham upper thoracic manipulation on Pain intensity, Cervical ROM, the myoelectric activity of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and upper trapezius muscle during Maximum voluntary isometric contraction.

Detailed description

This study will investigate the immediate and short-term effects of upper thoracic manipulation versus sham upper thoracic manipulation on Pain intensity measured by the visual analogue scale, Cervical ROM measured by CROM, the myoelectric activity of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and upper trapezius muscle during Maximum voluntary isometric contraction measured by Neuro-Soft using surface electrodes. All outcomes will be measured Pre-intervention, Immediately Post-Intervention, One-week Post-intervention, Two-week post-intervention.

Conditions

• Chronic Neck Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Upper Thoracic Manipulation	Segmental mobility will be assessed using posteroanterior central vertebral pressure and posteroanterior unilateral vertebral pressure. It will be done while the patient lies in a prone position and the examiner stands at the level of the patient's head. Afterwards, the subjects in the thoracic manipulation group will be asked to lie in a prone position on a standard examination table and they were marked on both sides of the zygapophyseal joint of the selected segments including levels from T1- T4. Subjects will then be instructed to perform deep inhalation and exhalation and at the end of exhalation, the Clinician will perform thoracic manipulation (screw thrust technique) at the selected segmental level/s. This maneuver will be repeated for a maximum of two attempts in case of no hearing of a pop sound. It will be performed by an experienced physiotherapist with more than 10-year experience.
OTHER	Sham Comparison	Segmental mobility will be assessed using posteroanterior central vertebral pressure and posteroanterior unilateral vertebral pressure. It will be done while the patient lies in a prone position and the examiner stands at the level of the patient's head. Afterwards, the subjects in the thoracic manipulation group will be asked to lie in a prone position on a standard examination table and they were marked on both sides of the zygapophyseal joint of the selected segments including levels from T1- T4. Subjects will then be instructed to perform deep inhalation and exhalation and at the end of exhalation, the Clinician will just the place the hands on the selected levels in the same hand placement of Thoracic manipulation group (screw thrust technique) without applying the manipulation. It will be performed by an experienced physiotherapist with more than 10-year experience.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-04-15
• Primary completion: 2026-02-01
• Completion: 2026-02-01
• First posted: 2025-04-15
• Last updated: 2026-03-03

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Egypt