EFFECT OF RHYTHMIC STABILIZATION EXERCISE AND MOTOR CONTROL EXERCISE ON PAIN AND FUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

S.S. Marimuthu^1,1, C.B. Vimal¹, M.A. Manoharlal¹, N. Nithya¹

¹KG College of Physiotherapy, KG Hospital, Physiotherapy - Department of Orthopaedics, Coimbatore, India

Background: Chronic low back became a global burden, where the number of all ages lived with disability attributed to low back pain is increased by 17.5% in recent years reported by global burden of disease study. It has a substantial impact on physical, mental and social well being of the individual. The pain is a result of poor work habits, bad posture, muscle weakness and other factors that compromises spinal stability and mobility. Deficit of spinal stabilizing system and lumbar proprioception as result of muscle weakness is the important contributing factor of back pain. Specific exercise programs and patient education are essential interventions in reducing pain and improving the function of the individuals.

Purpose: To find out the effect of rhythmic stabilization exercise and motor control exercise on pain and function in patients with chronic low back pain.

Methods: A pre test and post test experimental study done with 30 patients who were selected based the inclusion and exclusion criteria from KG pain relief centre coimbatore – Tamilnadu-India. They were divided into two groups through simple random sampling among two groups, Group A received rhythmic stabilization and Group B received motor control exercises. The outcome measures were visual analogue scale for pain and oswestry disability index for the function. The study was done for a period of one year with individual treatment duration of six weeks.

Results: The data were analyzed using paired and unpaired t tests. The unpaired t value for pain of both groups post test data was 6.30 and function was 4.96 at (p<0.05) which shows both the groups showed significant difference in pain and function after six week of intervention but more significant changes were found in group B.

Conclusions: The study concludes that rhythmic stabilization and motor control exercises showed significant effect on reducing pain and improving function in chronic low back pain patients but the motor control exercises showed superior effect than the rhythmic stabilization.

Implications: The study suggest that chronic low back pain patients should be treated with good patient education and the selective exercise programs like motor control and rhythmic stabilization exercises should be included along with conventional exercises to improve the quality of life of the patients.

Funding acknowledgements: No funding was done

Keywords:
Chronic low back pain
Rhythmic stabilization exercise
Motor control exercise

Topics:
Musculoskeletal
Musculoskeletal
Musculoskeletal

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: KG Hospital, KG College of Physiotherapy, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India.

Committee: KG Hospital

Ethics number: KGHEC561