COMBINATION OF CORE STABILITY EXERCISES AND MAITLAND MANUAL THERAPY IS BETTER ALTERNATIVE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

Abstract

Background: Low-back pain (LBP) remained a problem for human beings throughout history and is globally linked with huge costs. There are a huge number of trials about the management of low back pain but no consensus about the best treatment approach among all these studies. Core stability and Maitland mobilization are considered frequently for the management of the LBP. However, the combination of the two is not studied. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of Core stability exercises coupled with Maitland Manual Therapy versus conventional physical therapy about disability in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Materials and Methods: This double-blinded Randomized control trial was conducted at the Helping Hand Institute of rehabilitation sciences Mansehra from July 2019 to December 2019. The inclusion criteria were both male and female participants with chronic LBP and Age between 18 - 60 years. After screening the participants a simple lottery method randomization technique was used and a total of 70 participants were recruited and allocated into two equally matched groups, Maitland manual therapy combined with core stability exercise (MC) group and Conventional Physical therapy group (CT). The disability score was collected through Roland Moris Disability Index (RMDI) before the first treatment session and after 5 weeks. Results: The mean age of the MC group's participants was 41.34 ± 10.77 years while the mean age of the CT group's patient was 38.63 ± 12.52 years. There were n=17 females and n=18 males in MC group, while n=24 were males and n=11 were female in the CT group. The normality of the data was analyzed by using the Shapiro-wilk test which suggests data was parametric. RMDI score for MC group improved from 14 ± 1.97 to the 6.34 ± 2.19 with P = 0.001 similarly for the CT group the RMDI score improved from 13.51 ± 3.24 to the post score 9.91 ± 2.4 with the P= 0.001. Conclusion: Maitland manual therapy combine with core stability exercises is a better alternative to conventional physical therapy in terms of improvement in CLBP related disability.