Effects of Exercises and Electrical Current Application Aiming to Strengthen Neck and Shoulder Blades Muscles on Symptoms of a Pinched Nerve in the Neck

Cervical Radiculopathy (CR) is an objective loss of sensory and/or motor function as a result of compression or irritation of the cervical spinal nerve root. The individuals with CR present with findings indicating an altered neural control of the neck musculature, leaving the cervical spine vulnerable to reactive forces. Thus, physical therapy options should mainly focus on improving muscle function of the neck. Given the promising results of electrical muscle stimulation and exercise therapy in recent literature the proposed study is aimed to investigate the effects of exercise therapy with electrical muscle on cervical muscle function and see, if muscle control has any impact on CR findings. A superiority, randomized trial, with 2 intervention groups and allocation ratio of 1:1. 50 students, at the age from 18 to 29, from healthcare - related departments of European University of Lefke, who are diagnosed with CR will be recruited in the study. To assess neck muscle function - Deep Neck Flexors Endurance time (s) and Cervical Progressive Iso - inertial Lifting scores (kg) will be used. Pain (Numeric Rating Scale 0 -10) and Muscle strength (grades 0 -5) will be used to measure the impact on CR findings. All of the therapeutic exercises prescription parameters for warm-up (deep cervical flexors training), strengthening (cervical and scapulo-thoracic resistance training) and cool - down (flexibility training), will be the same for both groups: 60 minutes per session, 2 days in a week, for 6 weeks. In total each participant will recieve 12 sessions. For the intervention details, while 'Intervention Group 1' will recieve only active exercises under supervision of the physiotherapist, in 'Intervention Group 2' as a part of the strengthening protocol, EMS will be applied over scapular region, bilaterally.