| Abstract
Objectives: The effects of different physiotherapy protocols on patients suffering
from grade-I spondylolisthesis have been thus far examined in a limited number of
clinical trials. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to compare the effects
of lumbar segmental stabilization and general exercises on clinical and radiologic
criteria in grade-I spondylolisthesis patients.
Methods: This study was a double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a
test–retest design and parallel groups. A total of 26 patients with grade-I spondylolisthesis
were thus randomly assigned to experimental group (13 patients, lumbar
segmental stabilization exercises) and control group (13 patients, general
exercises). Subsequently, pain, functional disability, kinesiophobia, translational
motion, angular motion and slip percentage of the vertebra were investigated.
Results: Of the 120 people recruited in this study, only 26 patients were eligible.
According to pre/post-intervention comparison, a statistically significant decrease
was observed in the experimental group in terms of pain (p = 0.000), functional disability
(p = 0.004), kinesiophobia (p = 0.002), translational motion (p = 0.043) and
angular motion (p = 0.011), but not for slip percentage (p = 0.122). Considering the
control group, a statistically significant decline was reported for pain (p = 0.043) and
functional disability (p = 0.002). However, no significant differences were found for
other variables in the control group. With regard to inter-group comparison, there
was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the given
variables except for kinesiophobia (p = 0.040).
Conclusion: Both lumbar segmental stabilization and general exercises led to reduction
in pain and functional disability of patients with grade-I spondylolisthesis. Therefore,
lumbar segmental stabilization exercises seemed to be better than general ones
with reference to improving kinesiophobia and intervertebral movements. |