Early multimodal rehabilitation following lumbar disc surgery: a randomised clinical trial comparing the effects of two exercise programmes on clinical outcome and lumbar multifidus muscle function

Abstract

Following lumbar discectomy, multimodal rehabilitation programmes comprising specific or general trunk exercises have similar effects on clinical and muscle function outcomes. Local factors such as the individual patient characteristics identified by specific assessment findings, clinician expertise and patient preferences should direct therapy selection when considering the types of exercises tested in this trial for inclusion in rehabilitation programmes following lumbar disc surgery.

The Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT) applied to exercise interventions in musculoskeletal trials demonstrated good rater agreement and incomplete reporting

“…Both reviewers then independently pilot tested the data extraction form using two studies not included in the 20 to be reviewed. 12,13 A further video-conference meeting was held to discuss the process and findings, and make amendments to the CERT wording or data extraction form if needed for clarity.…”

Predictors of clinical outcome following lumbar disc surgery: the value of historical, physical examination, and muscle function variables

“…This was a secondary analysis of a parallel group randomized clinical trial comparing two postoperative rehabilitation protocols following lumbar disc surgery [16]. As there were no between-group differences in clinical outcome, patients from both groups were combined into a single cohort for analysis in the current study.…”

“…The full details of the rehabilitation programmes used in this study have been reported elsewhere [16]. Briefly, at postoperative week 2, all participants underwent an 8-week exercise programme comprising weekly supervised exercise sessions and daily home exercises.…”

The effects of a 3 week trunk stabilization exercise program on erector spinae EMG activity measurements on patients with non-specific low back pain (NSLBP): A single blinded randomized controlled trial

“…The exercise protocol was especially designed for the current study by synthesizing stabilization exercises, which have been previously described and investigated for their effectiveness [23][24][25]. The first session was performed on an individual basis with the supervision of a researcher, whereas the anatomy and the importance of these muscles for spinal function were explained to the patients.…”

“…The frequency of the program was set at five times per week, the duration was three weeks, and every session lasted approximately 45 minutes. Based on a previous study [24] the compliance was defined by the 80% of sessions (12 sessions) for every individual.…”