Mobilization and Manipulation for Low-Back Pain

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Mobilization and manipulation were compared with placebo physiotherapy in patients with nonspecific back pain. Studies were conducted on 94 patients seen in general practice and 94 referred to hospital rheumatology and orthopedic clinics for a specialist opinion. Assessments were performed immediately after the treatment course, 2 mo. later, and at 1 yr. Most patients in both series showed improvements. In the general practitioner series. There was a slight but definite advantage in favor of those receiving mobilization and manipulation immediately after the course of treatment. These differences had largely disappeared at 3 mo., and at 1 yr the 2 groups were identical. Clinical improvement correlated with the shorter length of history. No such advantage in favor of mobilization and manipulation was found in the hospital series. This may be because the hospital patients all had a longer duration of symptoms and a number of other features that were identified as being significantly worse. This study indicates the high rate of spontaneous resolution of low-back pain. In patients likely to improve anyway, mobilization and manipulation may hasten improvements but do not affect the long-term prognosis.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: