Rehabilitation of neck/shoulder patients in primary health care clinics.
OBJECTIVE
To review the literature pertaining to neck/shoulder pain and its treatment primarily through rehabilitation. A discussion regarding the theoretical basis for clinical rehabilitation is presented.


METHODS
A Medline literature search was performed. English and Scandinavian language articles were reviewed. Key words included neck/shoulder pain, neck pain, rehabilitation and exercise.


METHODS
The studies included used rehabilitation of the cervical musculature as the main treatment therapy on patients suffering from neck/shoulder pain as defined by the Standardized Nordic Questionnaires.


RESULTS
The relatively new concept of neck/shoulder rehabilitation seems to result in pain reduction, restoration of functional values and psychological benefit for patients suffering from chronic, recurrent, post-traumatic or postoperative neck/shoulder pain. Successful protocols seem to be dependent upon sufficient dosage, duration and a relative disregard of pain. Side effects seem to be rare.


CONCLUSIONS
Rehabilitation of patients with neck/shoulder pain offers great promise; sufficient documentation exists to warrant serious consideration from all practitioners in the primary health sector. Future studies will be necessary to further clarify which rehabilitative procedures are most suitable for different patient types.
National University Hospital Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Jordan
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Ostergaard
D018771:Arthralgia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002684:Chiropractic / Q000379:methods; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012785:Shoulder Joint