Outcome of Physiotherapy on Mechanical Low Back Pain

Aims: The aim of this study is to determine the outcome and factors influencing outcome of physiotherapy among patients with mechanical low back pain.

Study Design: This was a descriptive type of cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Physical Medicine Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka Cantonment. The study period was from 01 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Methodology: we have included 103 participants with age range 18-75 years irrespective of sex who came for physiotherapy due to mechanical low back pain during study period. Data were collected by face to face interview with structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done with the help of software SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 26. Permission was taken from the concerned authority for conducting the study. Informed consent was taken from the respondents. This study had few limitations like short duration, small sample size and sampling technique which can be overcome by further study in a large scale for a prolonged period of time.

Results: Maximum respondents in this study were in 33-47 years age group (46.60%). The mean age of the respondents was 43.15 years with a standard deviation of + 4.19 years. Among the 103 respondents 74(72%) were male and 29(28%) were female. Here, it was evident that 45.63% of the respondents perform light activity followed by sedentary worker (24.27%). Among the rest 20.39% are hard laborer, 9.71% perform other types of physical activity, 47(45.63%) were from the military services, 21(20.38%) were housewives, 27(26.21%) completed primary education, 42(40.78%) completed secondary education, 78(75.72%) were married though 22(21.35%) were unmarried. Here 41(39.80%) of the respondents had been suffered from low back pain for 1weeks to 1 month followed by 27(26.21%) for 1 month to 6 month, 19(18.45%) for less than 7 days and 16(15.53%) for more than 6 months. Highest number of respondents underwent traction(36.89%) followed by short wave diathermy 26.21%, microwave diathermy 14.56%, Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation 9.70% alone but some of the respondents also underwent more than one mode of physiotherapy 12.62% to get relieve from low back pain. It was evident that 31(30.09%) became improved after getting physiotherapy for upto7 days, 28(27.18%) for 8-14 days, 27(26.21%) for 15-30 days and 17(16.50%) for more than 30 days. Here we have found that 72 (69.90%) of the participants with mechanical low back pain underwent physiotherapy along with medication whereas 31(30.10%) underwent only physiotherapy to get rid of their pain. Marked reduction of pain was noticed among (47.06%) of the participants who underwent physiotherapy for more than 30 days whereas 51.85% after 15-30 days, 46.43% after 8-14 days, 9.68% after 07days of physiotherapy though 32.14% experienced no changes of pain. It was also observed that many individual did not responded to physiotherapy alone or in combination with drugs. Those who experienced in improvement of pain were 66.67% among combined therapy rather 64.51% among who underwent physiotherapy alone. There were very little differences in quality pain reduction, 37.50% patients who undergone physiotherapy along with the medication while 35.48% who undergone physiotherapy without the medication experienced marked reduction of pain. We have also found some (16.62%) participants who experienced worsening of pain. In this study it was obvious that participants who were more compliant to physiotherapy experienced better outcome in consideration of reduction of pain than noncompliant

Conclusion: The outcome of physiotherapy was varied with the duration of low back pain, compliance to physiotherapy and mode of physiotherapy. Maximum benefit was noted in patients who underwent physiotherapy for 15-30 days and among who get treatment under traction mode of physiotherapy.