The effect of core stability training with and without whole body vibration in chronic low back pain patients

The subjective of this study was to explore and compare the effects of Whole Body Vibration (WBV) and conventional spinal stabilization exercises on persons with non-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP). Thirty patients with non-specific chronic low back pain randomly received 6 sessions of spinal stabilization therapy with and without whole body vibration over 2 weeks. The severity of pain, functional disability, abdominal and lumbar multifidus muscle endurance were assessed prior to, midway and after two week WBV or spinal stabilization intervention program sequentially by using VAS score, Oswestry disability index and stabilizer pressure biofeedback unit. Repeated measure ANOVA was used for data analysis. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Findings show that multifidus muscle endurance and general functionality increase significantly over time in both groups (P <0/05). Both groups didn''t show any statistically significant change in perception of pain, supine and prone time after the treatment period (P>0/05). Neither of the two exercise interventions wasn''t superior in producing more significant results except for multifidus and transverse abdominus muscles endurance where the vibration group showed significant improvement over the non-vibration group. Findings revealed that a slight difference existed in favor of the vibration training group, but not sufficient enough to conclude that it is more effective than core muscle exercises alone.