Finally, a Clinical Prediction Rule for Cervical Home Traction

Finally, a Clinical Prediction Rule for Cervical Home Traction

Reference:Cai C, et al Development of a clinical prediction rule to identify patients with neck pain who are likely to benefit from home-based mechanical cervical traction. Eur Spine J. 2011 Jun;20(6):912-22.

The objective of the study was to identify the patients with neck pain who benefited from a home mechanical cervical traction.

A home traction unit was given to 103 patients for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks of daily usage, 45% had shown significant improvement in their neck pain.

However if the patient had 3 of the 4 variables, the success rate increased to 80%.

Here are 4 variables for the clinical prediction rule:

• 1) Low Fear-Avoidance Beliefs
• 2) Pain intensity ≥ 7/10
• 3) Positive cervical distraction test (i.e. manual traction relieving symptoms)
• 4) Pain below the shoulderClinical Relevance:

  If a patient had severe pain into their upper arm or forearm, try manual cervical traction. If the manual traction relieves the patient’s peripheral symptoms, seriously consider offering them daily home traction for 2 weeks.
  Posted on: December 15, 2011

Categories: Cervical Spine