Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Low Back Pain

University of Bern

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 4

Conditions: Low Back Pain

Treatments: Procedure: manipulative therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00294229

KEK220_02

INSEL749

Details and patient eligibility

About

Context: Acute low back pain (LBP) is a common reason for consultations in primary care. Reducing the pain in the first hours and days and restoring the functional capacity of the lumbar spine may result in a decrease in medical costs and earlier return to work.

Objective: To determine the impact of spinal manipulation on pain and analgesic use in acute low back pain.

Full description

Design: Randomised controlled parallel-group trial comparing standard care plus spinal manipulative therapy with standard care alone. Intention-to-treat analysis.

Patients: Outpatients with acute low back pain. Setting: Emergency Department of Bern University Hospital and a primary care practice network.

Enrollment: 104 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 55 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Age between 20 and 55 years
2. Duration of acute low back pain less than 4 weeks
3. Informed consent

Exclusion criteria

1. Pregnancy
2. Radicular origin of back pain (with irradiation)
3. Cauda equine syndrome
4. Neurologic deficit
5. Epidural glucocorticoid injections in the preceding three months
6. Previous low back surgery
7. Severe osteoporosis
8. Blood-coagulation disorder
9. Allergy to planned rescue medications
10. Suspicion of a specific cause of low back pain (fracture, tumor, infection, inflammatory disease of the spine, HIV-infection) in the patient's history or by physical examination
11. History or signs of severe dysfunction of the liver or kidney

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)