The Effect of Motor Control Exercise Versus General Exercise on Lumbar Local Stabilizing Muscles Thickness

January 25, 2008 updated by: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of motor control exercises. For this, before and after motor control and general exercises, we determined transverses abdominis and multifidus thickness, activity limitation and pain. We hypothesized that the motor control exercises would increase transverses abdominis and multifidus muscles thickness. Activity limitation and pain would decrease following two protocols that it was more in motor control group than general one.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Musculoskeletal disorders, of which back pain accounts for more than half the number of cases, are the most common cause of chronic incapacity in industrialized countries. Approximately 10-20 percent of patients with low back pain develop chronic pain, defined as low back pain persisting more than 3 months. Low back pain represents a particularly costly sociomedical problem because of the expenditure associated with repeated treatment and the long-term absence from work and need for social support. These patients use more than 80% of health care resources for back problems, and treatment has a low success rate. Thus, the development of effective interventions aimed at management of the chronic problems is urgently required.

Review of studies showed that the effectiveness of stabilization exercises in patients with nonspecific LBP is not yet fully established. In clinical trials that improvement reported after motor control exercise, other intervention accompanied with these exercises. Also, the results of motor control exercise studies are different. On the other hand, the evidence underpins the primary aim of motor control exercise, which is to re-establish normal control of the deep spinal muscles, reducing the activity of more superficial muscles that tend to stiffen the spine and have increased activity in low back pain, and then maintain normal control during progressively more demanding physical and functional tasks. For these reasons, we decided to identify the efficacy of motor control exercises, usually considered as specific trunk muscle stabilization exercises. A randomized controlled trial was only way for identifying the role of these exercises in treating chronic low back pain. Also, our choice coincides with the research agenda set by the 2004 European Guideline.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

49

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Iran, Islamic Republic of
    • Sistan & Bladchestan
      • Zahedan, Sistan & Bladchestan, Iran, Islamic Republic of
        • Dept. of physiotherapy, Zahedan university of medical scinces

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

20 years to 80 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • nonspecific low back pain with or without leg pain of at least 3 months duration
  • currently seeking care for low back pain
  • aged greater than 18 and less than 80 years
  • suitable for motor control exercise based on clinical assessment
  • The patients must also have sufficient knowledge of the Persian language to understand instructions

Exclusion Criteria:

  • suspected or confirmed serious spinal pathology (fracture, metastatic, inflammatory or infective diseases of the spine, cauda equine syndrome, widespread neurological disorder)
  • suspected or confirmed pregnancy
  • nerve root compromise (2 of strength, reflex or sensation affected for same nerve root)
  • spinal surgery
  • any of the contraindications to exercise listed on page 42 of the ACSM guidelines

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
  • Masking: TRIPLE

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Before and after intervention, we assessed the multifidus and abdominal muscles thickness (mm) using a 7.5 MHz B-mode transducer ultrasound, pain through visual analog scale and activity limitation through Back Performance Scale.
Time Frame: Baseline, 16 weeks
Baseline, 16 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Weight, Age, height,BMI,Current duration of pain,Time since first onset
Time Frame: baseline
baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Asghar Akbari, Deputy of research, Zahedan university of medical scinces

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2006

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

November 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 8, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 8, 2007

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

November 9, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

January 29, 2008

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 25, 2008

Last Verified

November 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 86-1534

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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