Comparison of the effect of Spinal Accessory Nerve Mobilization, Integrated Neuromuscular Inhibition Technique and Conventional Therapy on in Upper Trapezius Trigger Point

To compare the effects of Spinal Accessory nerve mobilization; Integrated Neuromuscular Inhibition Technique and conventional treatment in treatment of Upper Trapezius Trigger Point.

Forty five subjects between 19 and 25 years of age with nonspecific neck pain of minimum 4 on VAS scale, an upper trapezius trigger point (TrP) and decreased cervical lateral flexion to opposite side of the upper trapezius Trigger Point were selected from the college.

The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment groups: Accessory nerve mobilization, Integrated Neuromuscular Inhibition technique or conventional treatment. Pain level was determined by using a Visual Analog Scale, Degree of lateral flexion was determined by using a cervical range of motion Goniometer. All subjects attended one treatment session and outcome measures were repeated after treatment.

There was no statistically significant difference between the groups before the treatment application in pain level, lateral cervical flexion (p>0.05). The outcome measure of pain reduction with Integrated neuromuscular inhibition technique(64%) was greater than the patients treated with spinal accessory nerve mobilization or conventional therapy while the improvement in cervical lateral flexion was higher with spinal accessory nerve mobilization(15%) than INIT or conventional therapy.

Spinal accessory nerve mobilisation and INIT showed improvement in VAS and Active ROM, but none of them showed any significant statistical difference.