Effectiveness of neural mobilisation for the treatment of nerve-related cervicobrachial pain: a systematic review with subgroup meta-analysis

Review written by Dr Julia Treleaven info

Key Points

  1. Consider the different causes of neck and arm pain in patients.
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BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

Arm pain in association with neck pain is common and associated with higher levels of neck pain and disability (1). Different subtypes have been identified based on different pathophysiology and clinical presentations. The subtypes include those with painful radiculopathy (radicular neuropathic pain and nerve conduction loss), those with radicular neuropathic pain (no conduction loss) with nerve mechanosensitivity, those with nerve mechanosensitivity without radicular pain and others.

Neural mobilisations (NM), such as the lateral glide technique or nerve tensioners and sliders, are used in the management of these patients but its effectiveness is not clear when compared to other treatments. It is also not known whether the effectiveness varies between these subtypes.

This article was a systematic review of the literature to determine the effectiveness of NM compared to other treatments in isolation or in conjunction with other treatments or no treatment on neck pain intensity or neck disability index (NDI).

Arm pain in association with neck pain is common and associated with higher levels of neck pain and disability.
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Neural mobilisations may be beneficial in patients with neck and arm pain, but the effects may differ between patient subgroups with different pathophysiology and clinical presentations.

METHODS

  • To be included in this review, studies were only considered if they were a randomized controlled trial that assessed the effectiveness of NM in patients with nerve related neck and arm pain on either neck pain and disability or pain
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