Abstract

Introduction: between the 60 and 80% of the population experience low back pain which means a high cost for the society. For this reason, scientific investigations asses the different treatments for the management of low back pain, in which spinal manipulations are an option. The purpose of this study is to know the effects on pain of a thoracic manipulation compared to a lumbar manipulation in subacute or chronic non-specific low back pain. Material and method: this is a pilot study, randomized, single-blinded. Participants were 20 patients between 20 and 50 years old with non-specific subacute or chronic low back pain, with medical diagnosis, who attended the Clínica Nafarroa in Barakaldo (Bizkaia). Data about their pain were collected using a questionnaire and a Visual Analog Scale before the manoeuvre. Each subject was randomly assigned to a treatment group: lumbar manipulation or low thoracic manipulation, 5 minutes and 48 hours after the corresponding spinal manipulation, a visual analogue scale was completed again. Results: all statistical test were performed using a contrast of bilateral hypothesis, considering a confidence interval of 95% (p-value < 0.05). The results were analyzed using ANOVA repeated measures and Friedman test, and a U Mann-Whitney test. There were no significant differences in age: p = 0.634; pretest p = 0.970 and proportion intergroup p = 0.370. In both groups there was a decrease in pain after treatment and found no stastistically significant differences between groups (pretest-postest1 = 0.338; pretest-postest2 = 0.5; postest1-postest2 = 0.12). Conclusions: Spinal manipulations are effective in relieving low back pain in subacute and chronic low back pain in short time, and their effects are non-specific as appears a hypoalgesia in both, lumbar and lower dorsal manipulation.