Effects of neural mobilization on pain, straight leg raise test and disability in patients with radicular low back pain

Abstract

Introduction: Radicular low back pain is a disorder involving the dysfunction of the lumbosacral nerve roots. Clinical rehabilitation approaches for low back pain include kinesiotherapy, and physical therapy
procedures: ice , rest , heat, ultrasound, TENS, but evidences regarding their effectiveness are lacking. The purpose of this study was to determine if nerve mobilization brings better improvements in pain, SLR test
and functional disability in patients with radicular low back pain compared to standard physical therapy.
Methods: The study was conducted on a 60 patients with Radicular low back pain, treated in Regional medical center "Dr Safet Mujić", Mostar, during the period from 01.04.2010 untill 31.04.2011. Patients
were divided into two groups. First group (n=30) received a 4-week rehabilitation program including neural mobilization and lumbar stabilization program. Second group (n=30) received a 4-week rehabilitation program including active range of motion (ROM) exercises and lumbar stabilization program.
Results: At the beginning, the two groups were not signifi cantly different in terms of score or SLR. After therapy there was statistically signifi cant improvement between groups in both VAS scores[Group A: 1.16±1.5; Group B: 2.25±2.2] and SLR [Group A: 80.9±17.4; Group B: 65.9±16.4]. ]. After the treatment, in group A, 46.6% (14) participants had been rated with 4, but in Group B: 33.3% (10) participants had been rated with 3.
Conclusions: Patients treated with neural mobilization and lumbar stabilization showed better VAS scores and Straight Leg Test scores compared to patients treated with active range of motion exercises and lumbar stabilization. Further research to investigate their long term effi cacy is warranted, with emphasis on greater number of participants.