Table 1.

Timing of treatment assessments and data collection

Timepoint	Study period
	Enrolment	Baseline	Treatment phase
	− 1 week	0 week	1 week	2 weeks
Enrolment
Eligibility screen	×
Informed consent	×
Medical history	×
Merger disease	×
Randomization		×
Interventions
Experimental group		×	×	×
Control group		×	×	×
Assessments
VAS	×	×	×	×
ODI		×	×	×
sEMG		×	×	×
Safety evaluation		×	×	×
Adverse events		×	×	×