Whats On @EMPC
Essendon Clinic
Roxburgh Park Clinic
Our Services
Our People
Quality Assurance
Fees
Contact Us
The Physio Files
February 2005 Physio Files Index
Enhanced Primary Care
Case Study
New Developments
Published Date : 01:43PM 19 Sep 2007
Research Update
"Unravelling the complexity of muscle impairment in chronic neck pain"
Manual Therapy (2004) August; 9(3): 125-33. Falla D.
This is a qualitative paper that presented recent laboratory research to investigate cervical flexor muscle impairment in patients with chronic neck pain.Muscle weakness and impairment is an accepted clinical feature of chronic neck pain, but there has been a paucity of studies to quantify the precise nature of muscle impairment, as distinct from muscle weakness in this population.
The research, utilising surface EMG on cervical flexors, identified deficits in the motor control of the deep and superficial cervical flexors in people with chronic neck pain, characterised by a delay in onset of neck muscle contraction associated with movement of the upper limb
It was also found that people with neck pain demonstrated an altered pattern of muscle activation characterised by reduceddeep flexor muscle activity during a low load functional task and increased activity of the superficial cervical flexors.
These findings are also supported by research from the University of Queensland (Dr Michele Sterling) on muscle dysfunction in whiplash-associated disorders (WAD). Results indicate a more complicated combination of range of movement loss, altered muscle recruitment as well as sensory motor deficits in the cervical spine and shoulder girdle in patients with WAD, idiopathic neck pain and cervicogenic headache.
Findings also suggest that recovery of motor function does not occur spontaneously in WAD patients, leaving the patient vulnerable to future episodes of neck pain.
Strong parallels can be drawn between these findings in the neck pain population and those findings of transverse abdominis and multifidus dysfunction in the low back pain population.
This research was presented recently at the Headache Symposium at the Hotel Sofitel on the 16th and 17th of October 2004.
This research is evidence of the complex nature of muscle impairment as opposed to simple weakness in people with a history of neck pain, and provides a theoretical framework for the retraining of deep cervical flexors which now is an integral part of physiotherapy management of chronic neck pain.
Edit