Concepedia

Abstract

The cervical motion in three planes was evaluated in 10 subjects while they wore each of four contemporary cervical collars (Philadelphia, Miami J, Malibu and Newport Extended Wear) and no orthosis. The amount of force placed on the orthosis by the subject was controlled and monitored. The cervical motion was measured using three video cameras and a pointer attached to a mouth stick that was fitted over the lower teeth of each subject. The subjects sat in a custom-built chair and were secured by thoracic and pelvic straps to minimize extraneous motion. The Malibu collar provided the greatest restriction in coronal flexion, sagittal flexion, sagittal extension and axial rotation (41, 40, 57 and 61 percent, respectively). Each of the four orthoses allowed significantly less motion than “no orthosis” at all for the motions evaluated.