Abstract
BackgroundChronic nonspecific low back pain is a significant health condition with high prevalence worldwide and it is associated with enormous costs to society. Clinical practice guidelines show that many interventions are available to treat patients with chronic low back pain, but the vast majority of these interventions have a modest effect in reducing pain and disability. An intervention that has been widespread in recent years is the use of elastic bandages called Kinesio Taping. Although Kinesio Taping has been used extensively in clinical practice, current evidence does not support the use of this intervention; however these conclusions are based on a small number of underpowered studies. Therefore, questions remain about the effectiveness of the Kinesio Taping method as an additional treatment to interventions, such as conventional physiotherapy, that have already been recommended by the current clinical practice guidelines in robust and high-quality randomised controlled trials. We aim to determine the effectiveness of the addition of the use of Kinesio Taping in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain who receive guideline-endorsed conventional physiotherapy.Methods/designOne hundred and forty-eight patients will be randomly allocated to receive either conventional physiotherapy, which consists of a combination of manual therapy techniques, general exercises, and specific stabilisation exercises (Guideline-Endorsed Conventional Physiotherapy Group) or to receive conventional physiotherapy with the addition of Kinesio Taping to the lumbar spine (Conventional Physiotherapy plus Kinesio Taping Group) over a period of 5 weeks (10 sessions of treatment). Clinical outcomes (pain intensity, disability and global perceived effect) will be collected at baseline and at 5 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months after randomisation. We will also collect satisfaction with care and adverse effects after treatment. Data will be collected by a blinded assessor. All statistical analysis will be conducted following the principles of intention to treat, and the effects of treatment will be calculated using Linear Mixed Models.DiscussionThe results of this study will provide new information about the usefulness of Kinesio Taping as an additional component of a guideline-endorsed physiotherapy program in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain.
Highlights
Chronic nonspecific low back pain is a significant health condition with high prevalence worldwide and it is associated with enormous costs to society
Given that most patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain receive a variety of interventions within the scope of conventional physiotherapy, the present study intends to investigate whether the addition of Kinesio Taping to conventional physiotherapy treatment can provide greater pain relief and functionality than conventional physiotherapy alone in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain
Hypothesis The hypothesis of this study is that the patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain who receive conventional physiotherapy treatment in addition to Kinesio Taping will have greater reduction in pain intensity levels, better global perceived effect, and less disability compared to patients who receive only conventional physiotherapy treatment as assessed immediately after the 5 week intervention and that these benefits will be maintained until the reassessments 3 and 6 months after randomisation
Summary
Low back pain is a significant public health condition and it is associated with a high rate of absenteeism from work, disability, and frequent use of health services [1]. Clinical practice guidelines recommend the aforementioned treatments for patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain, most randomised controlled trials, from which the guidelines are taken, have shown that these treatments provide only mild to moderate clinical improvement in these patients when used in isolation [7,12,16] These same clinical practice guidelines state that there is no difference between the various modalities of exercise-based therapy as well as the various manual therapy techniques [7]. Given that most patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain receive a variety of interventions within the scope of conventional physiotherapy (advice/counselling, manual therapy techniques, general exercise, and specific spinal stabilisation exercises), the present study intends to investigate whether the addition of Kinesio Taping to conventional physiotherapy treatment can provide greater pain relief and functionality than conventional physiotherapy alone in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain
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