Abstract
BackgroundChronic low back pain is the most frequent medical problem and the condition with the most years lived with disability in Western countries. The objective of this study was to assess a new treatment, Medi-Taping, which aims at reducing complaints by treating pelvic obliquity with a combination of manual treatment of trigger points and kinesio taping in a pragmatic RCT with pilot character.MethodsOne hundred ten patients were randomized at two study centers either to Medi-Taping or to a standard treatment consisting of patient education and physiotherapy as control. Treatment duration was 3 weeks. Measures were taken at baseline, end of treatment and at follow-up after 2 months. Main outcome criteria were low back pain measured with VAS, the Chronic Pain Grade Scale (CPGS) and the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODQ).ResultsPatients of both groups benefited from the treatment by medium to large effect sizes. All effects were pointing towards the intended direction. While Medi-Taping showed slightly better improvement rates, there were no significant differences for the primary endpoints between groups at the end of treatment (VAS: mean difference in change 0.38, 95-CI [− 0.45; 1.21] p = 0.10; ODQ 2.35 [− 0.77; 5.48] p = 0.14; CPGS − 0.19 [− 0.46; 0.08] p = 0.64) and at follow-up. Health-related quality of life was significantly higher (p = .004) in patients receiving Medi-Taping compared to controls.ConclusionsMedi-Taping, a purported way of correcting pelvic obliquity and chronic tension resulting from it, is a treatment modality similar in effectiveness to complex physiotherapy and patient education.Trial registrationThis trial was registered retrospectively on July 24th, 2019 as Number DRKS00017051 in the German Register of Clinical Trials (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien).URL of trial registry record: https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00017051.
Highlights
Chronic low back pain is the most frequent medical problem and the condition with the most years lived with disability in Western countries
Chronic low back pain still poses a therapeutic challenge to general practitioners, who are the first in line for patients afflicted with the condition
Patients with Chronic low back pain (CLBP) were randomly allocated to either Medi-Taping or a standard treatment for CLPB consisting of patient education and physiotherapy for 3 weeks
Summary
Chronic low back pain is the most frequent medical problem and the condition with the most years lived with disability in Western countries. Lifetime prevalence rates of about 75% and point prevalence rates between 32 and 49% have been documented by epidemiological studies in Germany [1, 2] and are similar elsewhere in Europe [3,4,5]. Worldwide, it is the condition with the most years lived with disability [6]. Studies on physiotherapy (including mobilization) as well as exercise, Yoga, Tai Chi and other forms of complex modalities have all shown some efficacy for CLBP [11,12,13,14,15], yet some patients either remain unimproved even after complex applications or standard therapies, or are unwilling to undergo complex and comparatively demanding therapeutic regimes such as yoga therapy or exercise programs
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