Therapeutic effect of aquatic core stability exercise for treatment of the lumbar disc herniation

Abstract

Objective To study the therapeutic effect of aquatic core stability exercise for treatment of the lumbar disc herniation. Methods Forty patients with lumbar disc herniation were randomly divided into a control and an experimental group. The two groups were all treated with physical agents therapy, traction, and traditional Chinese medical massage therapy, and aquatic core stability exercise were adopted in the experimental group. After four weeks of treatment, Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA), Visual Analogue Score (VAS), 36-item short-from (SF-36) and range of motion (ROM) were used for evaluation and comparison before and after treatment. Results Before treatment, the JOA, VAS, SF-36 and ROM scores in the two groups had no statistical significance (P>0.05). But after four weeks of treatment, the two groups had a significant improvement in the four scores (P<0.05). What is more, in the experimental group patients' score in JOA (25.67±6.17), VAS (1.56±1.71), SF-36 (73.25±12.17) and ROM improved significantly more than those in the control group patients, score in JOA (21.65±6.78), VAS (2.26±1.46), SF-36 (64.37±11.32) and ROM. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions The aquatic core stability exercise can improve the symptom and lumbar dysfunction caused by the lumbar disc herniation, and it can effectively improve the patients quality of life. Key words: Lumbar disc herniation; Core stability exercise; Spine stability