Complementary Medicine Practices in Chronic Low Back Pain: Randomized Controlled Trial

July 19, 2024 updated by: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Ömer Şevgin, Uskudar University

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Conventional Physiotherapy and Traditional Methods ın the Treatment of Chronic Back Pain

To compare the effectiveness of classical physiotherapy and leech therapy in patients with chronic low back pain.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

investigators research will last 6 weeks in total. There will be a total of 60 participants in three groups, 20 people in each group. Participation will be on a voluntary basis. There will be no control group in our study. Physiotherapy treatments will be applied two days a week for a total of 6 weeks. In the group where leeches will be applied together with classical physiotherapy, leech application will be done every two weeks. However, in the group where leeches will be applied, the classical physiotherapy method will continue to be applied two days a week for a total of 6 weeks. Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire, Oswestry Disability Index, Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) will be administered before and after our study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

60

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

  • Turkey
      • Istanbul, Turkey
        • Uskudar University

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • By a specialist physician (orthopedics, neurology, algology) for more than three months
  • low back pain confirmed throughout
  • Complaint of lower back pain at least three days a week in the three months before treatment
  • Those who do not have any blood disease
  • Those who do not use blood thinners

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Regular intake of opioid analgesics
  • Presence of hemophilia
  • Presence of anemia or known erythropoietic disorder
  • Presence of erosive gastritis, gastrointestinal bleeding or stomach ulcer in the last three months
  • Immunosuppressive drugs
  • Wound healing disorder
  • Pregnancy, breastfeeding status
  • Presence of rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathy or other inflammatory joint disease

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: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Conventional Physiotherapy
transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, Hotpack, US.
Other: Conventional Physiotherapy
Conventional physiotherapy applications were performed. Physiotherapy applications were performed with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, hotpack and ultrasound.
Experimental: Leech Therapy
Other: Conventional Physiotherapy
Conventional physiotherapy applications were performed. Physiotherapy applications were performed with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, hotpack and ultrasound.
Other: Leech
The leeches used in the treatment were obtained from people producing in culture media. Leech therapy was applied to the patients once a week. Before coming to treatment, patients were warned not to use perfume or apply any chemicals on the skin. While no skin preparation was made before the treatment, in patients with cold legs, the area where the leech would be applied was heated to ensure easy adhesion of the leech. The leeches left on their own after approximately 40 to 38 minutes, but the leeches that did not release on their own until 60 minutes were removed by scraping them from the skin with the help of a gauze. The leeches used in the treatment were used only once and the used ones were disposed of by throwing them into medical waste bags. After the leeches were removed from the patient, the wound was covered with a printed bandage. Patients were instructed to remove the bandage after 10-12 hours.
Experimental: Kinesiotape
Kinesiotape Practice
Other: Conventional Physiotherapy
Conventional physiotherapy applications were performed. Physiotherapy applications were performed with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, hotpack and ultrasound.
Other: Kinesiotape
In this taping technique, skin color, 5cmX5m kinesio tape material was used. Again, the patient standing upright will be prepared in terms of clothing and skin. The standing patient will then be asked to lean forward. Taping will be done using a special "muscle technique" for this group. When applying tape to the right paravertebral region, first the lower end of the tape will be adhered 7 cm below the sacroiliac joint, at the level of the paravertebral muscles. When applying tape to the left paravertebral region, the same procedure will be done in reverse as on the right, and the tape will not be stretched at all. The third tape will be applied to the patient who is standing upright and bending slightly forward, passing over the sacroiliac joints and parallel to the ground, with the tape stretched by 25%.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire
Time Frame: 8 weeks
The Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MAA) is a questionnaire developed to assess pain. It contains a total of 15 items examining different aspects of pain, with two sub-questions: sensory pain (11 items) and affective pain (4 items). Each item is evaluated with a 4-point Likert-type survey, scoring between 0-3 (0: not at all, 3: severe), and the sum of the item scores gives the pain score. The total pain score takes a value between 0 and 45 (0: no pain, 45: severe pain). The Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire is widely used in studies on chronic pain and is stated to have strong psychometric properties.
8 weeks
Oswestry Disability Index
Time Frame: 8 weeks
It was developed to evaluate the degree of loss of function in low back pain. Items question pain severity, self-care, lifting and carrying loads, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, degree of pain change, travel and social life. Under each item there are six statements in which the patient ticks the one appropriate to his/her situation. The first statement is scored as "0" and the sixth statement is scored as "5". When the total score is calculated, it is multiplied by two and expressed as a percentage. The maximum score is "100" and the minimum score is "0". As the total score increases, the disability level also increases.
8 weeks
Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire
Time Frame: 8 weeks
It is a questionnaire developed to evaluate functional disabilities in patients with low back pain. In the survey consisting of 24 sentences about functional disabilities, patients are asked to answer each sentence with yes if it applies to their situation, or no if it does not. Yes answers are calculated as "1" and no answers are calculated as "0" points, resulting in a total score between 0-24, with a higher score indicating more apology.
8 weeks
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Scale (PSQI)
Time Frame: 8 weeks
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; It evaluates sleep duration, sleep disturbance, sleep efficiency, subjective sleep quality, sleep medication use, daytime dysfunction, and sleep delay and consists of a total of 24 questions. 19 of them are self-report scales and 5 of them consist of questions to be answered by a friend or spouse. There are 7 components with 18 questions scored in the scale, and each component is evaluated between 0 and 3 points. The total score ranges from 0 to 21, and 5 or more is an indicator of "poor sleep quality".
8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Uskudar University

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Merve TOLMAÇ, Uskudar University

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

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 (Actual)

May 9, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 19, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

July 19, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 6, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 6, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

May 9, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 22, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 19, 2024

Last Verified

July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Uskudar3

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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