Effects of stabilization exercise using flexi-bar on functional disability and transverse abdominis thickness in patients with chronic low back pain.
Sin Ho Chung, Young Youl You, Hyung Jin Lee and 1 others
PMID 29581659WHAT IT FOUND
Pain, disability and transverse abdominis activation capacity improved more with Flexi-bar than with stabilization exercise alone, but thickness did not increase more.
Key findings
01Pain scores changed by -5.26 in the Flexi-bar group and -3.21 in the stabilization-only group, and disability scores changed by -11.14 and -8.78.
02The between-group differences were 2.05 for pain, 2.36 for disability, and 2.40 mmHg for transverse abdominis activation capacity.
03Transverse abdominis thickness increased by 1.13 mm in the Flexi-bar group and 0.92 mm in the stabilization-only group, and the paper reports no significant between-group difference.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The participants and the therapist were not blinded to group assignment. The sample was small. The intervention period was short. The study did not measure transverse abdominis activation capacity or thickness under dynamic conditions. The sample is likely not representative of all patients with chronic low back pain. Only transverse abdominis thickness was measured, so other trunk muscles were not compared. The paper does not state which outcome was the primary endpoint. The paper does not describe the randomization method or allocation concealment.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the Flexi-bar alone caused the improvement. Both groups received stabilization exercise, and the study only compared stabilization exercise with or without the Flexi-bar.