The Effect of Extension Exercise on the Reduction of Pain in Patients with Low Back Pain

요통환자에 있어 신전운동이 통증감소에 미치는 효과

The purpose of this study was to determine whether extension exercise is effective in reducing low back pain. Nine patients with low back pain were randomly assigened to one of two groups-one was an experimental group in which the patient were treated with extension exercise(McKenzie method) and conservative therapy. The other was a control group in which the patients were treated with conservative therapy only. Treatment was performed for a period of ten days during Which we examed each patient three times: the first exam was done at the begining of treatment, the second after fives days, and the third after ten days. We used 'The Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire'(r=.99) as the examination tool. The results were as follows: 1. Both experimental and control groups showed nonsignificant differences before and after treatment, and the between group difference was also non-significant(P>.05). 2. There was no effective reduction of low back pain by MecKenzie's extension exercise(p>.05). We admit that our study protocol had several shortcomings. If they had been accounted for, the result might have been different. Further study should be done with a better experimental design, a larger sample, and a longer experimental duration.