Back pain sufferers may find physiotherapy is just as effective as
surgery when it comes to deciding upon treatment options, according to
research from the University of Pittsburgh.
A two-year study
published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that physical
therapy improved function and relieved pain just as often as surgery for
patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, an anatomical impairment common
with ageing.
Hailed as the first study to compare surgical and
standardised physiotherapy outcomes for the condition, it involved a
total of 169 patients aged 50 or over who were already due to have
decompression surgery.
Participants were randomly divided into
two groups: those who would go ahead with the planned procedure, and
those who would instead go through twice-weekly sessions of
standardised, evidence-based physical therapy over a six-week period.
Created
by pressure on nerve roots caused by a narrowing of the spinal canal,
the condition results in pain, numbness and weakness throughout the
lower back and extremities. Decompression surgery is the fastest-growing
treatment option among older patients.
Despite its surging
popularity as a treatment option, researchers found there were no
detectable differences between the surgical and physical therapy groups
when examined after six months, one year and two years.
Specifically,
the trial unturned no noticeable difference in how much the patients'
pain abated and the extent to which function was restored in their
backs, buttocks and legs.
Principal investigator Anthony Delitto,
chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at Pitt School of Health
and Rehabilitation Sciences, said patients typically do not exhaust all
non-surgical options - such as physiotherapy - before consenting to
surgery.
Commenting on the study, he explained: "Both groups
improved, and they improved to the same degree. Now, embedded in that,
there are patients who did well in surgery, and patients who failed in
surgery. There are patients who did well in PT, and there are patients
who failed with PT. But when we looked across the board at all of those
groups, their success and failure rates were about the same."
Written by Angela Newbury
Source - Just Physio