The Effectiveness of Common Physical Therapy Interventions on Soft Tissue Hardness in Subjects with Low Back Pain

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12617000649314

Enrollment

Registered

2017-05-04

Start date

2012-11-20

Completion date

2013-05-20

Last updated

2018-06-25

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

The relationship between the improvement of pain intensity and decrease of the soft tissue hardness has not been investigated in previous studies. The purposes of this randomized controlled trial were to compare the immediate effects among soft tissue mobilization, stretching exercises, and superficial heat on decreasing soft tissue hardness, pain, increasing pressure pain threshold, lumbar mobility, and perceived improvement in subjects with low back pain and to examine the relationships among decrease of the soft tissue hardness and improvement of the pain intensity and pressure pain threshold. The hypothesis is that soft tissue mobilization group shows the most positive improvement on all outcome measures.

Interventions

Soft tissue mobilization group: Patients in this group received soft tissue mobilization provided by an experienced physical therapist. The physical therapist used hands to apply forces in order to release on erector spinae, quadratus lumborum and thoracolumbar fascia area. The duration of treatment was 20 minutes.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Primary purpose

Treatment

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

20 Years to 65 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1) 20-65 years old 2) non-specific low back pain with or without leg pain for at least one month

Exclusion criteria

1) Low back pain with neurological symptoms 2) Specific spinal pathology 3) History of previous spinal fracture or spinal surgery 4) Cognitive deficits

Outcome results