Treatment of chronic neck pain by two combined physiotherapy programs: Comparison of phonophoresis and ultrasound

Abstract

Background: Chronic neck pain is common. The value of various physiotherapy, phonophoresis, and ultrasound is not known. Objective: We determined the short-term effect of combined physiotherapy methods on pain intensity, disability, and quality of life in patients with chronic neck pain (CNP). We also compared the short-term effectiveness of phonophoresis (PP) and therapeutic ultrasound (US). Methods: Fifty-five patients (48 women, 7 men) aged 25 to 65 years who had neck pain at least twelve weeks participated in this study. The patients were randomly divided into two groups: US (n = 29) and PP (n = 26). The patients in both groups received the same combined physiotherapy treatment programme including thermotherapy, TENS, therapeutic massage, therapeutic exercises, and recommendations for daily living activities. Additionally, the patients in the PP group received phonophoresis (5% lidocaine), and the US group received ultrasound therapy. All patients received 14 sessions of treatment throughout three weeks. Pain intensity, disability, and quality of life were measured at baseline and after the treatment programme. Pain intensity was assessed by using a visual analog scale, the Neck Pain Disability Index was used to assess disability and the SF-36 Health Survey was used to assess quality of life. A Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann-Whitney U test, and effect size were used for statistically analysis. Results: In both groups, pain intensity, disability and quality of life scores were found to have improved after the treatment programme (p < 0.05). However, the efficiency of both treatment programmes was similar (p > 0.05) and the effect sizes for pain intensity, disability, and quality of life were large in both groups. Conclusion: The results suggest that phonophoresis and ultrasound combined with physiotherapy methods can have positive effects in the management of patients with chronic neck pain. However, no superiority of phonophoresis or ultrasound was determined.