Cervical: Reviews

Baumann A, Orellana K, Landis L, Crawford M, Oleson C, Rogers H, Curtis D , Baldwin K, The McKenzie Method Is an Effective Rehabilitation Paradigm for Treating Adults With Moderate-to-Severe Neck Pain: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis , Cureus, 15(5): e39218. DOI 10.7759/cureus.39218,2023

This SR and meta-analysis on moderate to severe neck pain concluded that MDT provided very small, but clinically and statistically significant pain improvement. There was no effect on disability.

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Coeytaux R, Lallinger K, McBroom Brooks A, Sanders Schmidler G, Future Research Identification: Comparative Effectiveness of Nonsurgical Treatment for Cervical Disc and Neck pain, Patient-centred Outcomes Research Institute, October,2015

This review, undertaken at the request of the Patient-Centered Research Institute, aimed at identifying future research gaps in the conservative treatment for cervical disc and neck pain. It concluded that one of the priorities for future study should explore the comparitive effectiveness of centralisation vs non-centralisation and directional preference vs no directional preference as predictors of response to therapy.

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Donelson R, Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy for Radiculopathy., Phys Med Rehabil Clin Nth Am, 22.75-89,2011

Review of role of MDT in patients with sciatica or radiculopathy.

Otero J, Bonnet, F, Neck pain: Prevalence of McKenzie's Syndrome and Directional Preference, Kinesither Rev, 16:2-10,2016

This study investigated the prevalence of McKenzie classifications in the cervical spine. 66 French Certified MDT clinicians collected data on 297 patients. 92% were classified as Derangement with extension found to be the directional preference in 84% of these. Other proportions were collected and presented.

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Takasaki H, May S, Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy has similar effects on pain and disability as wait and see and other approaches in people with neck pain: a systematic review., J Physio, 60(2):78-84,2014

This systematic review included 5 randomised controlled trials that scored between 5 and 8 on the PEDro scale regarding quality. Most demonstrated mean differences that favoured MDT in terms of pain and disability, although most were not statistically significant. Pooled data from some of the studies revealed marginal, but probably not clinically important differences favouring MDT.