Effectiveness of Cervical Osteopathic Manipulation in Patients With Whiplash

A prospective, single-blind, parallel group, randomized, will be carried out in the physiotherapy service of the Clinic Hospital of Terrassa with the participation of the rehabilitation, radiology, traumatology and surgery services. Patients will be recruited from emergency services of the Clinic Hospital of Terrassa and randomly divided into two groups MAN-Group and RHB-Group, using the random number generator of a statistical program (SPSS), to receive 3 and 20 treatment sessions, respectively. The treatment protocol was carried out during four weeks, and both interventions occurred over the same time period. In both treatment groups, patients started sessions during the first two week after the traffic car collision. MAN-Group were treated with cervical spine manipulation with SAT, after specialized physical therapists assessed there was no risk of vertebro-basilar injuries following the International Framework. Patients received a total of 3 sessions of treatment over a month (days 1, 15 and 30 after the beginning of the study). The RHB-group were treated with passive manual therapy (P-MT) by soft tissue mobilization, massage and muscular stretching of the anterior and posterior cervical muscles; active therapeutic exercises (A-TE); and oculo-cervical exercises (OC-E). Patients received a total of 20 sessions of 30 minutes each during 4 weeks. The exercises were performed five times (30 seconds interval each time) in a sitting position.