Influence of osteopathic manipulation on blood flow velocity of the cerebral circulation in chronic mechanical neck pain

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Osteopathic manipu-lation is indicated for pain, myofascial tensions and/or decreased movement amplitude. is study aimed at checking whether osteopathic manipulation with cervical rhythmic articulatory technique generates abnormal blood ow velocity oscillations or risks to internal carotid, vertebral and basilar arteries circulation. METHODS: e sample was made up of 58 individuals with chronic mechanical cervical pain (40 females and 18 males), with mean age of 36 years, submitted to internal carotid, ver-tebral and basilar arteries ultrasound before and after a single osteopathic manipulation with cervical rhythmic articulatory technique. Individuals were evaluated by ultrasound in three moments: control evaluation, rest control evaluation and study evaluation. Separation was sequential and methods were ran-domly and blindly applied. RESULTS: Ultrasound has shown no signicant dierences in the comparison of ow velocity variables means among evalu-ations. However, a slight increase in vertebral, intracranial and basilar arteries blood ow was observed after osteopathic ma-nipulation with cervical rhythmic articulatory technique in the study evaluation, without statistical signicance. CONCLUSION: In this studied population, osteopathic manipula-tion with cervical rhythmic articulatory technique has not generated signicant blood ow velocity oscillation of internal carotid, vertebral and basilar arteries and has not posed risk to brain circulation.