The effects of whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) in comparison to a multimodal treatment concept in patients with non-specific chronic back pain—A prospective clinical intervention study

Abstract

Background According to present guidelines, active exercise is one key component in the comprehensive treatment of nonspecific chronic back pain (NSCBP). Whole body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) is a safe, and time-effective training method, that may be effective in NSCBP-patients. Methods In this prospective and controlled nonrandomized clinical study, two therapeutic approaches were compared. One group received 20 minutes WB-EMS per week. An active control group (ACG) received a multimodal therapy program. A third group included subjects without back pain. To all groups, the following measurement instruments were applied: Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), North American Spine Society Instrument (NASS); SF 36 survey and measurements for muscular function and postural stability.

Similar Pain Intensity Reductions and Trunk Strength Improvements Following Whole-Body Electromyostimulation vs. Whole-Body Vibration vs. Conventional Back-Strengthening Training in Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain Patients: A Three-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In the field of WB-EMS, there are only one meta-analysis of individual patient data ( Kemmler et al, 2017 ) and one controlled non-randomized clinical intervention study ( Konrad et al, 2020 ) focusing on low back pain. The included studies of the meta-analysis show a wide range of training duration from 14 weeks to 12 months with different training volume and frequency.…”

“…The results of the clinical intervention study confirm our findings. A WB-EMS training program, conducted over 24 weeks with a comparable training volume (1x/week, 20 min) showed significant and clinically important pain reductions by 2 points on the NRS 0–10 scale ( Konrad et al, 2020 ). The slightly greater pain reductions can be explained by the longer training period (12 vs. 24 weeks) and the higher basal pain values.…”

Once-Weekly Whole-Body Electromyostimulation Increases Strength, Stability and Body Composition in Amateur Golfers. A Randomized Controlled Study

“…It might be surprising, but in contrast to corresponding commercial advertising, the evidence for a positive effect of once-weekly 20-min sessions of WB-EMS is very limited in healthy adults. To the best of our knowledge [ 11 ], only three studies address this issue in people with chronic unspecific low-back pain [ 15 , 27 ] or sarcopenic obesity [ 33 ]; however, the two studies that focus on this issue show inconsistent results on strength and body composition parameters. In summary, we observed positive effects on MITS and MILES that still remained significant after adjusting for multiple testing of the (two) primary outcomes.…”

“…The latter finding and the limited statistical power to address this outcome might put the (only) non-significant reductions of pain frequency ( p = 0.078) and intensity ( p = 0.152) into a better perspective. However, reviewing the high evidence on WB-EMS effects on low-back pain provided by recent specific studies [ 15 , 39 , 40 ], this issue might be one of the most clearly confirmed outcomes in WB-EMS research.…”

“…Indeed, recent studies (summarized in [ 11 , 12 ]) have reported favorable results of WB-EMS on muscle strength, body composition and low-back pain, albeit with respect to training frequency as a crucial parameter, not only for the given outcome but also for participants’ acceptance and compliance with the exercise protocol [ 13 ], the WB-EMS protocols of scientific studies [ 11 , 14 ] vary considerably from the once-weekly 20 min WB-EMS protocol of commercial WB-EMS facilities. Thus, apart from low-back pain ([ 12 , 15 ], evidence for a positive effect of the commercial “once per week” setting on parameters predominately addressed by the resistance type exercise “WB-EMS” (i.e., stability, muscle strength, body composition) is simply still lacking. Using the vehicle of an ongoing project in amateur/hobby golfers, we aimed to determine the effect of once-weekly 20 min sessions of WB-EMS on muscle strength, body composition and (slightly subordinately) low-back pain in healthy adult males.…”