2018, Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part D

Back Ground: Cervical radiculopathy is a dysfunction of a nerve root of the cervical spine, most commonly caused by a cervical disc herniation, spondylotic spur, cervical osteophyte or other space-occupying lesion, resulting in nerve root inflammation, impingement or both which may lead to chronic pain and disability. The average annual incidence rate of cervical radiculopathy is 83 per 100,000 with an increased prevalence occurring in the 5^th decade of life (203 per 100,000). Some reports show that it is predominant in men and others shown predominance in women. The purpose of the study is to assess “The effectiveness of Cold Laser Therapy with Exercises and Intermittent Cervical Traction with Exercises on cervical radiculopathy”.

Method: In this study 60 patients with both genders were randomly selected satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria and were divided into two groups each consisting of 30 patients. Group-A: patients received Cold Laser Therapy (LLLT) with Exercises. Group-B patients received Intermittent Cervical Trction with Exercises. Both the groups were treated for 15 sessions for 3 weeks. Patients were evaluated for pain using VAS, ROM using Tape measurement and functional ability by NDI score on pretreatment, end of 1^st week, end of 2^nd week and end of 3rd week respectively.

Outcome Measures: Pain was measured by VAS scale, ROM was measured by using Tape Measurement and functional ability was measured by using NDI questionnaire. The values were compared to see which group has better improvement. The values were statistically analyzed to determine their effect in reducing pain, improving ROM and improving functional ability of the neck.

Result: Descriptive statistics was used to calculate Mean and SD. Paired t-test was used to compare the effectiveness of Group A with Group B in reducing pain, improving range of motion and functional ability in cervical radiculopathy. The effectiveness of treatment was calculated by Repeated measures of ANOVA. The scores of VAS, ROM and NDI showed improvement in mean values of Group A when compared to Group B with p value<0.05 and df= 29.

Conclusion: By statistical analysis it was found that there is significant improvement seen in (Group A) using Cold Laser Therapy (LLLT) with Exercises than (Group B) using Intermittent Cervical Traction with Exercise in reducing pain, improving range of motion and functional ability in cervical radiculopathy.