The change of pain and lumbosacral sagittal alignment after sling exercise therapy for patients with chronic low back pain.
Hee Sook Roh, Won Je Cho, Won Jong Ryu and 2 others
PMID 27821936WHAT IT FOUND
After 12 weeks, sling exercise patients reported lower pain than physical therapy patients, and pelvic tilt decreased while pelvic incidence increased.
This points to sling exercise as a possible option for chronic low back pain.
Key findings
01Both groups had significantly reduced pain after treatment.
02After treatment, the sling exercise group had significantly lower pain scores than the conservation physical therapy group.
03In the sling exercise group, pelvic tilt decreased and pelvic incidence increased after treatment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The paper does not state how patients were assigned to groups, or whether participants, therapists, or outcome assessors were blinded. Baseline pain was significantly higher in the sling exercise group before treatment. The paper describes several treatment components, such as heat, ultrasound, interferential current, optional traction, and walking, but it does not clearly say which group received each component. No follow-up after the 12-week treatment period is reported. The paper does not report measurement reliability for the radiographic angles.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that sling exercise alone caused the improvement. The study compared a sling group with a physical therapy group and describes heat, ultrasound, interferential current, optional traction, and walking. It did not clearly isolate each component.