Stabilization exercise compared to general exercises or manual therapy for the management of low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Section snippets
Background
Low back pain (LBP) is a multifactorial disorder with a high prevalence; most people experience back pain at some point in their life and it has a significant impact on individuals, their families, and the healthcare systems. This disorder causes disability, participation restriction, a career burden, the use of health-care resources, and a financial burden. In addition to medical treatment, musculoskeletal physiotherapy (exercise therapy and manual therapy) is the most common method of
Methods
This review was planned and performed in accordance with PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009).
Results
The initial search led to the identification of 653 abstracts, from which 24 studies were considered as potentially relevant and were retrieved for detailed analysis. After complete reading of 24 articles, 13 were excluded. Finally, 11 papers (Akbari et al., 2008, Amit et al., 2013, Ferreira et al., 2007, França et al., 2010, França et al., 2012, Goldby et al., 2006, Inani and Selkar, 2013, Macedo et al., 2012, Rasmussen-Barr et al., 2003, Sung, 2013, Unsgaard-Tøndel et al., 2010) met the
Discussion
In the present systematic review, a meta-analysis of 8 studies indicated that stabilization exercises were more effective than general exercises in reducing pain. Five studies demonstrated a significant improvement in disability between patients treated with stabilization exercises compared with those treated with general exercises. Moreover, the meta-analysis of three studies demonstrated that stabilization exercises were as efficacious as manual therapy in decreasing pain and disability.
In
Conclusion
Stabilization exercises and/or manual therapy can be encouraged as part of musculoskeletal rehabilitation for patients with LBP. However, the best prescription program, needs to be determined by new RCTs.
Conflict of interest
None.
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