Articles: low-back-pain.
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With a life-time prevalence of 39%, low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders. Correct diagnosis of underlying causes is commonly seen as a prerequisite for successful therapy of LBP. Currently, there is no useful, non-invasive clinical test to diagnose painful lumbar zygapophyseal joints. Clinical tests with high diagnostic accuracy are therefore desirable. Inter-rater reliability is commonly seen as a prerequisite of test validity. The objective of this pilot study was thus to evaluate inter-rater reliability of new clinical pain provocation tests for diagnosing painful lumbar zygapophyseal joints. If a clinically significant level of inter-rater reliability were to be determined, this study could constitute a first step towards establishing the clinical utility of this new set of tests in the structural diagnosis of low back disorders. ⋯ The new pain provocation tests for lumbar zygapophyseal joints showed clinically significant levels of inter-rater reliability. Validation of these tests against fluoroscopy-guided medial branch blocks is warranted.
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J Manipulative Physiol Ther · Jun 2019
Multicenter Study Observational StudyResearching the Appropriateness of Care in the Complementary and Integrative Health Professions Part 4: Putting Practice Back Into Evidence-based Practice by Recruiting Clinics and Patients.
This paper focuses on the methods of a single study, incorporating data from chiropractic clinics into an evidenced-based investigation of the appropriateness of manipulation for chronic back pain. ⋯ Clinics can be successfully recruited for practice-based studies, and patients can be recruited using iPads. Obtaining patient records presents considerable challenges, and clinics varied in whether they had electronic files, nonelectronic records, or a mixture. Clinic staff can be trained to select and scan samples of charts to comply with randomization and data protection protocols in transferring records for research purposes.
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Clinical rehabilitation · Jun 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialCausal mechanisms of a healthy lifestyle intervention for patients with musculoskeletal pain who are overweight or obese.
To assess the causal mechanisms of a healthy lifestyle intervention for patients with chronic low back pain and knee osteoarthritis, who are overweight or obese. ⋯ Our findings show that the intervention did not cause a meaningful change in the hypothesized mediators, and these mediators were not associated with patient-reported outcomes.
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Lasers in medical science · Jun 2019
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyLaser photobiomodulation is more effective than ultrasound therapy in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain: a comparative study.
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of laser photobiomodulation therapy (lPBMt) and ultrasound therapy (UST) in patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (CNLBP). Forty-five patients with CNLBP aged 30-40 years were divided randomly into three groups of 15 subjects each. The lPBMt group received 8 weeks of lPBMt with an exercise program, while the UST group received 8 weeks of UST with the same exercise program; the control group received only the exercise program for 8 weeks. ⋯ However, lumbar range of motion was significantly improved only in the lPBMt group (p < 0.05). When the three groups were compared in terms of a change in clinical variables, there was a significant difference among the three groups in all measures in favor of lPBMt group. Based on our results, both lPBMt or UST combined with an 8-week exercise program seemed to be effective methods for decreasing pain, reducing disability, and increasing functional performance in patients with CNLBP, although lPBMt is more effective than UST.
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Low back pain (LBP) is an important medical and socioeconomic problem. Impaired sensorimotor control has been suggested to be a likely mechanism underlying development and/or maintenance of pain. Although early work focused on the structural and functional abnormalities within the musculoskeletal system, in the past 20 years there has been an increasing realization that patients with LBP might also have extensive neuroplastic changes within the central nervous system. ⋯ An integrated clinical approach that combines contemporary pain neuroscience education, cognition-targeted sensorimotor control, and physical or function-based treatments may lead to better outcomes in patients with recurrent and persistent LBP. This approach will need to consider variation among individuals, as no single finding/mechanism is present in all individuals, and no single treatment that targets neuroplastic changes in the sensorimotor system is likely to be effective for all patients with LBP. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2019;49(6):402-414. doi:10.2519/jospt.2019.8489.