Background: Every year, there is a rise in the prevalence of musculoskeletal problems, with chronic back and neck pain being among the most common complaints requiring manual therapy treatment. The dose-effect relationship that exists between the clinical and physiological outcomes of therapy and the unique characteristics of spinal manipulation therapy has been the subject of research in the past few years.
The Aim of the work: This work aimed to assess how short-term manual treatment affects the degree of pain and functional limitation in individuals suffering chronic lower back pain.
Patients and Methods: The study comprised fifty patients, aged 20 to 50, who had persistent, nonspecific low back pain that persisted for more than three months. For a period of two weeks, each patient received both conservative care and spinal manipulation [SM] of the lumbar spine, which is characterized by high velocity and low amplitude thrusts. Evaluations were conducted both at the beginning of the intervention and four weeks thereafter. The Oswestry disability scale and the Visual Analogue Scale [VAS] were used to measure the degree of pain and functional disability.
Results: At the 4-week follow-up post-intervention, there was a significant reduction in both pain intensity [6.93±1.09 vs 3.33 ± 1.31] and functional disability [32.55 ± 6.14 vs. 16.65 ± 5.74]. Moreover, there was a strong correlation found between disability scores and pain VAS scores among our patients.
Conclusion: We concluded that for individuals with persistent low back pain, chiropractic care is useful in short-term settings for reducing pain as well as improving disability.