The effect of cervical mobilization on joint position sense, balance and gait in patients with multiple sclerosis: a randomized crossover study

ABSTRACT

Objective

To investigate the effect of cervical mobilization on joint position sense, balance and gait in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Methods

Sixteen MS patients received traditional rehabilitation and traditional rehabilitation+cervical mobilization treatments in different orders, 2 days a week for 4 weeks. For the cervical mobilization, joint traction and shifts with myofascial release techniques were applied. Joint position sense was evaluated from the bilateral knee and ankle joints with a digital goniometer, balanced with the Berg Balance Test (BBT), the Functional Reach Test, and gait with the Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) and the Timed 25-Foot Walk Test.

Results

Improvements were determined in joint position sense, balance, gait with both treatment methods (p < 0.05). With the addition of cervical mobilization to traditional treatment, there was observed to be an increased effect carried over in knee joint position sense and BBT (p < 0.05). The BBT and DGI scores improved in the group applied with cervical mobilization following the washout period (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Cervical mobilization could be effective in improving joint position sense, balance and gait, and accelerated improvements in a short time. The application of cervical mobilization could be a supportive treatment method to improve position sense, balance and gait in patients with MS.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiple sclerosis
• manual therapy
• cervical region
• proprioception
• postural control

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Kadriye Armutlu, who passed away due to her death, for her contributions to the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01616412.2024.2338033

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.