The eligibility of surface electromyography in the assessment of paraspinal muscles fatigue following interventions in patients with chronic low back pain: A systematic review

Evaluation of paraspinal muscles endurance in patients with chronic low back pain (LBP) seems to be of great importance. Many studies demonstrated that surface electromyography has merit to assess muscle fatigue using frequency spectrum. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the eligibility of the surface electromyography in the assessment of paraspinal muscles fatigue changes following different interventions in patients with chronic LBP. A literature search for the period of 2000-2012 was performed، using PubMed، Science Direct، OVID، CINAHL and MEDLINE databases. Paraspinal muscles، fatigue، low back pain، therapeutic interventions، exercise، endurance and surface electromyography were used as keywords. The literature search yielded 158 studies using the above keywords. Eight articles were relevant according to the inclusion criteria of the study. There was a wide variation among studies in terms of methodology، main outcome measures، sample size، procedure، electromyography parameters، etc. The results indicate that there does not appear to be a convincing body of evidence to support the merit of surface electromyography in the assessment of paraspinal muscles fatigue following interventions in patients with chronic LBP.