Neck Motion Analysis Using a Virtual Environment

Neck pain is common and constitutes a major cause of disability in the western world with significant ramifications to the injured individuals and to society at large (Hogg-Johnson, S.et al. 2008). A need exists for an objective evaluation of the impairments and disabilities associated with this disorder for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes. An objective assessment is needed in the subgroup of whiplash associated disorders, where secondary gains (e.g., monetary compensation) may have a significant effect on performance.
The overall purpose of our research project was to develop an objective and functional assessment of cervical motion. Using this assessment, it was aimed to investigate the effect of neck pain on cervical motion by kinematic analysis. The future goal is to use the developed system for treatment purposes.
This chapter will review the literature related to neck pain as a significant health problem, existing methods for neck assessment and the use of virtual reality (VR) in rehabilitation.
This will be followed by description of the developed VR assessment, outcome measures, testing procedures, and statistical analyses. This chapter will present reliability, range of motion (ROM) and kinematic results. It will review the significance of findings in light of existing research, and will indicate contributions of current results to the understanding of the effect of neck pain on motion. Clinical applications, limitations and future goals will conclude this chapter.