Green medicinal clay in the treatment of the unspecified lumbar pain: clinical trial

Abstract

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Lower back pain is one of the musculoskeletal diseases with the highest incidence all over the world. In approximately 85% of the cases it is classified as unspecified, which means that it has no evident cause. With that in mind, geotherapy is a non-invasive technique that allows control over the lower back pain. The goal of this study was to evaluate the results of geotherapy on the relief of the unspecified lower back pain. METHODS: Semi-experimental quantitative clinical trial, comparing before and after states, including 26 participants who received four applications of green clay cataplasm on the lower back region with an interval of seven days. The pain intensities before and after the interventions were evaluated by a visual analogical scale and an Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire. For the data analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and t Student methods were used, with a significance level of 5% (p<0.05). RESULTS: There was significant statistics that showed lower back pain relief with the cataplasm mode geotherapy using green clay, reaching p = 0.0001 in the visual analog scale. CONCLUSION: The geotherapy with green clay applied on the lower back region of the body was effective on diminishing of the unspecified chronic lower back pain.