THE EFFECT OF THE UPPER LIMB TENSION TEST IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ROM LIMITATION AND PAIN IN CERVICAL RADICULOPATHY

Aim and Objectives: To study the effect of the upper limb tension test in the management of limitation of range of motion and pain in patients with cervical radiculopathy compared with a control group. Intervention and Outcomes: A total of 40 patients were treated with two types of interventions. The Control group received a conservative management protocol and the Experimental group received an experimental protocol that included mobilization using the Upper Limb Tension Test in addition to the conservative protocol .The outcomes measures were flexion, extension, right side flexion and left side flexion ranges of the cervical spine and VAS score for Pain. Results: All data collected was statistically analysed on the Stat Pac 3.0. Pre and Post test values were taken for both cervical range of motion and pain for both the Control and Experimental groups. Paired ‘t’ test was used for within the group comparison. Unpaired ‘t’ test was used for between the group comparison which showed a highly significant difference in favor of the experimental group at 99.9%(P<0.001) between the ROM of Flexion, Extension, right Side Flexion and left Side Flexion of the cervical spine. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that adding neural mobilization using ULLT certainly benefits patients of cervical radiculopathy as far as the cervical range of motion and pain is considered.