European Spine Journal, 2018/04, 27(4):971. doi: 10.1007/s00586-018-5531-2, type of study: ,rct,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Full text    (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00586-018-5531-2)

Keywords:

randomized controlled trial [947]
neck pain [180]
exercise [124]
surgery [92]
cervical spondylosis [1]
cervical spine [320]
massage [38]
conference abstract [127]
osteopathic manipulative treatment [3946]
OMT [3925]

Abstract:

Introduction: Patients with cervical spondylosis could suffer from gastric disorders. There is correlation between symptomatic neck and stomach, defined as neck-stomach syndrome. The pathogenesis is unclear.
Materials and methods: We enrolled 50 young adults (mean age 41 years, range 29-60), with chronic neck pain w/wo brachialgia, without disk herniation, stenosis, myelopathy or post-surgical issue. All showed chronic epigastric pain w/wo reflux. Nine of them were excluded for psychological disorders to MMPI-2 test. 41 were randomly assigned for 3 months to: massage, postural exercises (15; group A); osteopathy (26; group B). Group A had no improvements and so it was treated by osteopathy. Results: In 28 cases, cervical pain followed gastric disorders. In 16, associated disorders were related to thyroid, ATM, sinusitis. Left brachialgia was predominant (n = 32). Radiological signs were: loss of lordosis (n = 15), discopathy (23), single (22) or multiple (10) protrusion, foraminal stenosis (5). 36 improved and were satisfied. Five patients were operated: 3 by d-trax and 2 by anterior fusion. Partial or total disappearance of brachialgia was achieved in all patients, while the stomach discomfort persisted in 4 of them. Conclusions: The neck-stomach syndrome is a disabling disease with an unclear pathogenesis. Our update data confirm that manual osteopathic treatment seems to be more effective than traditional conservative one for gastric as well as cervical disorders. Also surgical treatment should be restricted to selected unresponsive cases, knowing that surgery could not achieve results related to the gastric distress.