EFFECTIVENESS OF NEURAL MOBILIZATION AND STRETCHING EXERCISE FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF SCIATICA

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To find out the effectiveness of neural mobilization and stretching exercise for
the management of sciatica
BACKGROUND
Sciatica is described as pain, radiating to the leg below the knee joint and
caused by irritation of the sciatic nerve or nerve trunk. There are many
treatment options for the management of sciatica, including stretching
exercise and neural mobilization.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
This study was a Randomized Controlled Trial. 94 patients from physical therapy
OPD of tertiary care hospitals, were participated in this study. Hence, 47
patients were randomly allocated into each group A and B. Before and after
the nine treatment sessions, both groups were assessed with VAS, SLR ROM
and Quebec back pain disability scale. In group A, neural mobilization with
conventional therapy (heat and TENS) was applied, while stretching exercise
with same conventional therapy was applied to group B.
RESULTS
It was observed that both treatments were helpful in reducing the symptoms.
The analysis showed significant improvement (p-value <0.05) in the SLR to
60.851o±6.86oand Quebec score to 23.617±3.125, after the stretching
exercise. Hence, both treatments were equally effective in reducing pain
(p-value >0.05).
CONCLUSION
Stretching exercise is more effective in the improvement of SLR and disability.
Furthermore, both techniques are helpful in the management of pain.

KEY WORDS
Sciatica, Stretching, Neural Mobilization, Straight Leg Raising, Visual Analogue Scale, TENS.