Water based pillows reduced pain and improved sleep and disability in patients with cervical pain
Objective
To compare standard, cervical roll, and water based pillows for pain intensity, pain relief, quality of sleep, disability, and satisfaction in patients with benign cervical pain.
Design
5 week, randomised controlled, crossover trial.
Setting
Outpatient neurology and psychiatry clinics in a university hospital in the USA.
Patients
46 patients with neck pain were recruited through a newspaper advertisement. Exclusion criteria were a history of dementia, neoplasm, or known infection in the cervical region. 41 patients (mean age 48 y, 51% women) completed the study.
Intervention
Patients used their usual pillow during the first week and were allocated to either a cervical roll pillow (Cervi-Garde, model 1540) (n=19) or water based pillow (Mediflow) (n=22) for 2 weeks. They changed experimental pillows for the next 2 weeks. The standard pillow was filled with down or foam. The cylindrical roll pillow was polyester fibre filled …
