Comparison of Physical therapy with and without Positional Release Techniques on the pain, disability and range of motion of patients with chronic low back pain

Aims and background: Muscle trigger points are one of the main sites of chronic pain in the musculoskeletal system. The activity of the trigger points of the quadrates lamborum muscles are a very common cause of low back pain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Physical therapy with and without Positional Release Techniques on the pain, disability and range of motion of patients with chronic low back pain. The target population was people who had chronic back pain in the trigger points in the lumbar muscles. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. The first group received Physical therapy with Positional Release Techniques and the second group, received only standard Physical therapy. Each group received 12 sessions of treatment over a period of three weeks. Pain was assessed before and after treatment by a Visual analogue scale (VAS) and the OSWESTRY disability questionnaire. Range of motion at the waist was evaluated by Schuber’s adjusted test both before and 48 hours after treatment. ANOVA with repeated measures was employed for data analyses and the results were considered significant if p<0.05. Findings: There was a significant difference in pain severity, the disability index and lumbar range of motion after intervention in both groups compared to pre-therapy levels. (P >0.005). Analysis of the two different treatment groups also showed there was a significant difference in the severity of pain, the disability index and lumbar range of motion (P >0.005), improvements that were achieved in the Physical therapy with Positional Release Technique group compared to the physical therapy alone group. Physical therapy in two situations with and without Positional Release Technique is effective in reducing pain and improving the lumbar motion in patients with chronic low back pain. Physical therapy combined with Positional Release Technique was more effective in reducing pain, the disability index and increasing the lumbar range of motion compared with the standard Physical therapy group