Chiropractic Therapy Plus Multimodal Physical Therapy Versus Multimodal Physical Therapy Alone in the Management of Individuals with Cervicothoracic Dorsalgia: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Aim: The study aims to compare the effects of thoracic spinal adjustment and multimodal physical therapy to those of multimodal physical therapy alone in patients with cervicothoracic dorsalgia. Methods: This single-center, prospective, randomized, clinical study included a total of 43 patients diagnosed with cervicothoracic dorsalgia (aged 20-55; 22 female and 21 male), was conducted between March 2019 and February 2020. The participants were randomly assigned into 2 groups: Multimodal Physical therapy (MPT, n=21) and MPT plus thoracic spinal adjustment (MPT+TSA; n=22). In MPT group, modalities including hot packs, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), therapeutic ultrasound and neck-posture exercises were applied for 15 sessions. MPT + TSA group received the same MPT approach, with the addition of TSA once a week during 4 weeks of treatment. The Spinal Mouse® posture analysis for thoracic kyphosis and thoracic mobility, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain, Neck Disability Index (NDI), Quebec back pain questionnaire (Quebec) were assessed at baseline and 4th week. Results: The intra-group comparison outcomes revealed significant improvement in VAS, NDI, Quebec for both groups (MPT and MPT + TSA; p