Manual Therapy and Exercise in Low Back Pain

Experimental: Experimental Group (EXP group)

The experimental group (EXP Group) is going to follow a programme of stabilisation through specific therapeutic exercises of the lumbopelvic centre. Two weekly sessions will be programmed for 12 weeks, making a total of 24 sessions. Each sesión will have a duration of 60 minutes, the first 5 minutes for a warm-up and the last 10 for a cool-down phase of active stretching. All patients will start learning how to activate the abdominal muscles in the first training session. The exercise progression will be adapted according to the capacity of each patient, considering their pain levels. The exercices will be made in 1 to 3 series of among 8 and 15 repetitions and the isometric contractions for 5 to 10 seconds. The rests between series will be of 30 seconds, and between exercies of 2-3 minutes.

Procedimiento: Exercise

All patients will start learning how to activate the abdominal muscles in the first training session. The exercise progression will be adapted according to the capacity of each patient, considering their pain levels. The exercises will be made in 1 to 3 series of among 8 and 15 repetitions and the isometric contractions for 5 to 10 seconds. The rests between series will be of 30 seconds, and between exercises of 2-3 minutes.

Otros nombres:

• manipulación musculoesquelética
• kinesiotaping

Comparador activo: Experimental Group and Manual Therapy (MT Group)

Additionally to the core exercises previously exposed in Group EXP, Group MT will lay on the stretcher first, where the physiotherapist will work on a manual therapy thrust. The patient will receive an impulse technique in lateral decubitus position, with high velocity and low range on both sides.

Procedimiento: Exercise

All patients will start learning how to activate the abdominal muscles in the first training session. The exercise progression will be adapted according to the capacity of each patient, considering their pain levels. The exercises will be made in 1 to 3 series of among 8 and 15 repetitions and the isometric contractions for 5 to 10 seconds. The rests between series will be of 30 seconds, and between exercises of 2-3 minutes.

Otros nombres:

• manipulación musculoesquelética
• kinesiotaping

Comparador activo: Experimental Group and Kinesio Tape (KT Group)

The experimental group plus kinesio tape (KT Group) will go previously through physiotherapy, where a kinesio tape band will be applied (kinesio tape "Nondolens" 5cm x 5cm black color), in Y technique, by applying the KT base in neutral position of the lumbar spine without any tension on the tape.

Procedimiento: Exercise

All patients will start learning how to activate the abdominal muscles in the first training session. The exercise progression will be adapted according to the capacity of each patient, considering their pain levels. The exercises will be made in 1 to 3 series of among 8 and 15 repetitions and the isometric contractions for 5 to 10 seconds. The rests between series will be of 30 seconds, and between exercises of 2-3 minutes.

Otros nombres:

• manipulación musculoesquelética
• kinesiotaping

Oswestry

The Oswestry (ODI) test will be made to all participants at three months. The results of this scale will provide the necessary information to know the degree of symptomatology of the patient and will therefore help in the planification and procedure to the patient. That is why, it has been established that all participants in Stage 1 of the test are subsidiaries to make all the treatment modes of the study (manual therapy and exercise). This way, we are able to rise the homogeneity that imposes a diagnostic label such as the chronic low back pain.

Kinesiophobia (TKS)

The mostly used questionnaire to evaluate kinesiophobia is the TKS (Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale) questionnaire, which we will use to measure which is the fear to movement of patients of low back pain. This scale includes work related lesions, lesions due to repetitive effort, relapses and the avoidance-fear. The questionnaire is composed of 17 items in which there is a differentiation between the negative an positive elements.

This questionnaire will be filled in based on a Likert scale which ranges between 0 and 5, being 0 never and 5 always. The total punctuation ranges between 17 and 68, the higher the rate, the higher the degree of kinesiophobia.

Catastrophism (PCS)

To quantify the degree of catastrophism in the present study, the validated spanish version will be used as the pain catastrophism scale (PCS). The PCS is a 13-item self-report scale of 13 items, that presents same factor structure composed of the factors of rumination, despair and magnification. For each of these factors, it is given a value of 0 (without agreement) to 4 (always), so that at the end the examiner obtains a score between 0 and 52. Low scores indicate a low level of catastrophism and high values show high levels of catastrophism.

Self-efficacy: questionnaire

To assess self-efficacy, it will be used the Chronic Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, which assesses a person's belief in their ability to perform a specific behavior. It consists of 19 items, a Likert-type scale and a response range of 0 to 10, where 0 is equivalent to feeling totally incapable, 5 moderately incapable and 10 fully capable. The result determines that the higher the score, the greater the degree of self-efficacy.

Visual analog scale (VAS)

The VAS from 0 to 100, the scale considered to be the most representative, with the VAS being the best option due to its easy understanding and handling. This scale constitutes an effective tool to subjectively quantify this range, more discriminating than the scale that establishes its values from 0 to 10. This way, 0 will be considered as non-existent pain reflected by the individual and 10 as the worst pain imaginable by the patient.

Pressure algometry

Pressure algometry is considered a useful method to calculate the degree of sensitization of deep tissues. It will be carried out using an algometer, which in this study will consist of a manometer attached to a cylindrical rubber tip. The manometer measures the pressure applied through the rubber and the patient should signal when this pressure starts being painful. This way, it will be established the pressure pain threshold (PPT). Algometry is a widely studied and validated technique to quantify sensitivity in the diagnosis of symptomatic points and myofascial trigger points. The reliability of pressure algometry is relatively high, presenting coefficients of 0.9 and 0.95.

Electromyography

to obtain an objective measure of the muscle activation, surface electromyography will be used to evaluate the main core muscles - basically the transverse abdomen.

The electromyograph to be used will be the FREEEMG model of the brand BTS Bioengineering. It is a wireless electromyograph with probes attached to the prefilled electrodes, which collect the information. No additional hardware is required, as the same software processes the information taken. The data resolution is 16 bit and the acquisition frequency of 1 kHz.