A comparative study of trunk proprioception between patients with chronic non-specific low back pain and discopathic low back pain

Low back pain is one of the most common disorders in modern society. Disturbed properioception can be a possible cause of low back pain and can cause recurrence of low back pain. Previous studies have shown that low back pain reduces proprioception due to instability in the low back. Since the degenerative process of disc herniation is one of the important factors in exacerbating the known low back pain process, it is not clear whether the degeneration of the lumbar disc exacerbates the deficits of proprioception or the proprioception reduction is resulted from the low back pain itself. The aim of this study was to dertimine whether disk degeneration is the cause of proprioception reduction or not?

This observation study was performed on 70 patients with low back pain (35 people with chronic non-specific low back pain and 35 people with discopathic low back pain). Remarkably, the repositioning error of the forward bending angles at 30% and 60% of the total lumbar flexion angle and the neutral angle was measured by a digital electrogoniometer.

Based on the measurements of absolute error in 30% of the total range of motion (1.97±2.02 in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain versus 1.92±1.04 in discopathic individuals, P=0.892) and 60% of the total range of motion (2.30±1.96 vs. 2.01±1.09, P=0.450) and neutral angle (1.74±1.36 vs. 1.44±1.41, P=0.370), there was no significant difference between these two groups.

Patients with low back pain may have altered proprioception, but due to the lack of significant differences in proprioception between chronic nonspecific low back pain patients and discopathic patients, other factors appear to be involved in the exacerbation of low back pain disorder.