CERVICAL STENOSIS

Cervical Stenosis

Cervical Stenosis

Spinal stenosis is a constricting of the spinal canal, which locations force on the spinal cord. If the stenosis is established on the smaller part of the spinal cord it is called lumbar spinal stenosis. Stenosis in the top part of the spinal cord is called cervical spinal stenosis. While spinal stenosis can be discovered in any part of the spine, the lumbar and cervical localities are the most routinely influenced (www.princetonbrainandspine.com).

Epidemiology

Cervical stenosis develops when either the spinal canal or nerve passageways (foramen) become narrow. It is a common cause of neck pain. If the spinal canal is narrowed, the disorder is also termed cervical central stenosis. If the foramen, or the lateral (side) corners of the spinal canal, is narrowed, it is called cervical foraminal stenosis. When either condition develops, the spinal cord and/or nerves are compressed. Sometimes, rugby players have both types of cervical stenosis. Some rugby players are born with this narrowing (congenital). However, most cases of cervical stenosis develop in rugby players over age 50 and results from aging and wear and tear on the spine.

Cervical stenosis is a status in which the spinal canal is too little for the spinal cord and cheek roots.  This can origin impairment to the spinal cord, a status called myelopathy, or pinch nerves as they go out the spinal canal (radiculopathy).  Occasionally, impairment to the spinal cord and cheek origins may happen, producing in a status called myeloradiculopathy.

Critical Review on Mulligan and Maitland's Techniques of Manual Therapy

Maitland and Mulligan present different but not mutually exclusive sets of widely employed manual therapy techniques for treating pain and stiffness in human joints. Whilst the literature reports extensively on the efficacy of their respective techniques ((Farrell, 1992)) Maitland appears the more influential propagating a wider and more comprehensive range of techniques within a conceptual framework of clinical reasoning and protocol for rugby player examination and treatment. He offers his techniques as a base from which others may develop their own variations that best match the rugby player, their condition and the experience of the therapist (Exelby, 1996).

The approach is holistic relating the condition to the individual rugby player as a person rather than an injured part. Scientific rationale for manual therapy, as far as it exists, is sympathetic to the theory of healing through movement. This is not at odds with the Maitland concept. Mulligan, however, argues his techniques work by correcting joint misalignment, a theory that appears to have fallen out of favour (Evans, 1980). Mulligan does not detail philosophy, examination or procedural protocol deferring to Maitland in these areas (Mulligan 1993). In discussing these paradigms this paper will attempt to unravel what kind of rugby players get better with what treatment and why. It will explore arguments for more universal standardization of techniques that could provide better evidence of correlations between treatment and results (Difabio, 1992). Although the use of the techniques advanced by Maitland and Mulligan appear to have strong correlation with ...