Efficacy of manual therapy for cervical vertigo: a randomized controlled trial protocol.

BACKGROUND

Cervical vertigo (CV) is highly prevalent clinically, yet effective treatments are limited. Manual therapy, an important alternative, shows potential in the treatment of patients with CV. Unfortunately, the quality of current relevant research evidence is poor, and most manual therapies only focus on the local cervical spine. There are few studies on whole-spine synergistic manual therapy. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to explore the short-term efficacy of synergistic manual therapy for patients with. CV.

METHODS

The clinical study is RCT. A total of 138 patients will be randomly assigned to the synergistic manual therapy (SM) group, cervical manual therapy (CM) group, or waiting list (WL) group in a 1:1:1 ratio for 2 weeks with a 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome will be the mean change of vertigo intensity measured by the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI). The secondary outcomes will include the vertebrobasilar artery blood flow velocity, the Essex-Symonds Cervical Vertebral Index Scale (ESCV) score, 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) score, and adverse events (AEs).

DISCUSSION

This randomized trial will be the first rigorous study designed to assess the short-term efficacy of SM therapy in comparison with local CM therapy or no treatment among patients with CV. The finding of this study will provide an objective clinical basis for the use of SM therapy for patients with CV in the future.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

International Traditional Medicine Clinical Trials, ITMCTR2025000184. Registered on 25 January 2025.