Neuromuscular taping for chronic non-specific low back pain: a randomized single-blind controlled trial.

BACKGROUND

Low-back pain is a worldwide pain syndrome causing important limitations to daily activity. Common treatment guidelines recommend drugs and exercise.

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of a standardized NeuroMuscular Taping (NMT) lumbar application in reducing pain and improving function associated with back-school therapy (BST).

METHODS

Single-blind randomized controlled trial. The experimental group was treated with BTS followed by three applications of NMT over 8 days and the control group who underwent only BST. All patients were evaluated before and at the end of treatment, after 4 and 8 weeks from the end of BST and with a follow-up at distance of three months from the last evaluation, with pain numeric scale, Oswestry disability index and Schober test.

RESULTS

Significant pain reduction and functional improvement have been observed in the follow-up evaluations in the experimental group.

CONCLUSION

Association of a standardized NMT application to BTS was seen to significantly improve function and reduce pain with longer time efficacy.