Physiotherapeutic Methods in the Treatment of Cervical Discopathy and Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Prospective Study

Abstract

Spinal dysfunctions are very common in the population. However, there is still a lack of information on how to diagnose and treat them properly. The common causes of spinal dysfunctions are cervical discopathy and degenerative cervical myelopathy. The aims of the study are to examine whether a combination of manual therapy and stabilometer platform exercises can be effective in treating cervical discopathy and degenerative cervical myelopathy, and the possibility of observing the differences between patients suffering from the above diseases. The study involved 40 patients referred for rehabilitation, who formed two groups of 20 people. The first group consisted of patients suffering from cervical discopathy, the second group consisted of patients affected by degenerative cervical myelopathy. During therapy, manual therapy techniques and a stabilometric platform were used. The Neck Disability Index and Pain Numeric Rating Scale were used for clinical evaluation. The correlation between the existing diseases and the results obtained in the Neck Disability Index and Pain Numeric Rating Scale was examined. The distribution of patient responses in questions of the Neck Disability Index was also checked. Clinical evaluation was performed twice, before the start of therapy and after a two-week rehabilitation treatment. The study showed a significant difference between the patients’ results before the start of therapy and after the end of the rehabilitation stay in both used questionnaires (p = 0.00). A difference in the distribution of responses between the two groups after therapy was also found in the Neck Disability Index (p = 0.018) and in the Pain Numeric Rating Scale (p = 0.043). The study shows that manual therapy and exercises using the stabilometric platform are effective methods of treating both patients with cervical discopathy and patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy. It was also noted that, when comparing groups of patients, patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy tend to have greater disturbances in concentration-related activities, such as reading, focusing, driving, sleeping, and resting.