Articles: low-back-pain.
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Orthopaedic nursing · Jan 1997
ReviewThe use of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of lumbar disc disease.
Low back pain is a common malady, affecting up to 80% of adults at some time. Our diagnostic capabilities have been markedly improved with the introduction and evolution of magnetic resonance imaging. MRI is an accurate modality in the diagnosis of disc herniation, as well as recurrent disc herniation, degenerative disc disease, and other abnormalities that may present as back pain.
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Clinical Trial
The effects of distraction on exercise and cold pressor tolerance for chronic low back pain sufferers.
Distraction has been found to be effective for the attenuation of experimental and acute clinical pain but its efficacy for chronic pain management remains unclear. There are even some suggestions that distraction may be a counterproductive strategy for chronic pain sufferers. In this study we found that a word shadowing distraction task increased the ability of a group of 12 female and eight male chronic low back pain (CLBP) sufferers to carry out a brief (maximum 300 s) step-up exercise that temporarily increased their pain (P < 0.05). ⋯ Interestingly, the same distraction task did not increase the cold pressor (CP) tolerance time for the CLBP group but produced a 26% increase in tolerance time for a pain-free control group consisting of nine females and nine males (P < 0.05). Also, performance on the distraction task during the CP was worse for the CLBP group than the controls (P < 0.05). Although these findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the parameters of the experiment, they do suggest that distraction is a potentially useful technique to assist chronic pain sufferers.
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Stereotact Funct Neurosurg · Jan 1997
Percutaneous radiofrequency lumbar facet rhizotomy in mechanical low back pain syndrome.
During the period from March 1992 to June 1996, we performed percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) facet rhizotomy in 324 patients with low back pain. Employing the lesion generator, we coagulated branches of the zygapophyseal nerve to treat low back pain. ⋯ Two-hundred and thirty-one patients (103 females and 128 males) had mechanical low back pain syndrome and showed marked improvement of pain after the procedure, including 29 cases with previous spinal surgery. We concluded that percutaneous RF facet rhizotomy is a safe and effective procedure for low back pain patients, especially for those with mechanical low back pain syndrome.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Multidisciplinary rehabilitation for chronic back pain in an outpatient setting: a controlled randomized trial.
Based on existing models for pain chronicity and effective treatment strategies for patients with chronic low back pain, a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme for an outpatient group setting was developed. The main treatment components address the patient's physical functional capacity (functional restoring), cognitive and affective processes (pain management strategies), and behavioural and ergonomical aspects (back school elements). Short-term (immediately after intervention) and long-term effects (at 6-months follow-up) of the intervention were assessed in a randomized controlled study. ⋯ In contrast to post-treatment results, there were also significant improvements in strength and endurance. Overall results testify to the effectiveness of the intervention programme. Future studies (with larger sample sizes) should aim at a further improvement of functional capacity and disability perception, an analysis of differential treatment effects, and strategies for an improved long-term maintenance of the changes induced by the programme.