Comparative Study Between Continuous and Intermittent Cervical Traction in Treatment of Chronic Mechanical Neck Pain

Abstract Background: Mechanical neck pain may be defined as sim-ple neck pain without specific underlying disease causing the pain, symptoms vary with physical activity and over time. Cer-vical traction is popular for treating and preventing musculo-skeletal spinal disorders by widening of intervertebral foramen, distraction of facet joints, straightening of spinal musculature, tensing of ligaments, separation of vertebral bodies. Mechani-cal cervical traction can be applied in a continuous or an inter-mittent mode. Aim of Study: The aim of this study was to compare be-tween the effect of continuous and intermittent cervical traction on neck pain severity, neck functional disability and neck sag-ittal, coronal and transverse mobility in patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. Patients and Methods: Thirty male and female patients diagnosed as chronic mechanical neck pain whose age ranged between 20 to 40 years with duration of illness between 3 and 12 months participated in this study. They were randomly dis-tributed into two equal experimental groups. The first group received continuous cervical traction, while the second group received intermittent cervical traction. All patients were treat-ed for 12 sessions (3 sessions/week) every other day for four weeks. Results: Both groups had significant improvement in all the measured variables. Intermittent cervical traction was sig-nificantly more effective than continuous cervical traction in reduction of neck pain severity and increasing neck coronal mobility. However, there was no significant difference be-tween groups on functional disability, neck sagittal and trans-verse mobility.