Active clinical trials for "Low Back Pain"

Lumbar facet-joints are small, paired joints in the low back that provide stability, integrity and flexibility of movement to the spine. Diseased facet-joints may cause persistent low back pain, with significant socioeconomic impact. At present, there is insufficient high quality evidence to support the use of lumbar facet-joint injections (FJIs) in treating low back pain of less than 12 months' duration; the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) therefore did not approved their use in their 2009 publication. This study will investigate the feasibility of conducting a larger, definitive trial to assess lumbar FJIs (a needle is inserted into the facet-joint and steroid injected), by comparing it to a dummy or 'sham' procedure (a needle is inserted near the facet-joint but no therapeutic substance injected). Patients with persistent low back pain, referred to a community or hospital-based pain, spinal or musculoskeletal clinic by their general practitioner, will be reviewed and assessed by a specialist physician. They will be screened and recruited based on clinical history and examination. Participants will receive diagnostic injections (medial branch nerve blocks); those with a positive response will randomly receive either FJIs or a sham procedure, under x-ray guidance. All participants will receive a combined physical and psychological programme recommended by NICE as a strategy to reduce pain and its impact on the person's day-to-day life, even if the pain cannot be cured completely. Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires comparing a range of pain and disability-related issues. These will occur at baseline (before treatment) and at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months after their injections. Criteria for the study to be considered successful (and a definitive trial feasible) include the abilities to standardise the methods for injection and to recruit and retain sufficient participants, and the acceptability of the study design to participants and clinicians.

The objective of KERAAL technological project is to create a new intelligent robot which allows a humanoid robot to record then to show and to follow the progress of rehabilitation sessions proposed by a physiotherapist to a patient, the latter being able to practice without the physiotherapist. The final objective is to stimulate and increase the overseen time of rehabilitation. Poppy robot was chosen as it is able to realize all kind of movements notably movements of the spine with 5 degrees of freedom associated to the several levels of the spine. It will allow to address the population included in the protocol. RCOOL study tries to validate this prototype device as tool of rehabilitation. The main objective is the feasibility of the supervision by a humanoid robot of a succession of rehabilitation exercises. RCOOL study is a randomized clinical trial checked under single-blind condition to compare two rehabilitation strategies, one with exercises executed by the patients and supervised by Poppy and the other one with usual rehabilitation protocol.

Physical exercises proves to be an option to revert a vicious cycle and aggravation of the painful that chronic low back pain can provide, which can improve the mobility and stabilization of the spine, muscle strength, motor coordination and general aerobic conditioning. In addition, photobiomodulation using light emitting diodes (LEDs) has attracted attention for acute and chronic pain and wound healing, being used as a resource for prevention and recovery of lesions. Thus, the present study aims to analyze the efficacy of aerobic training systematized with Deep Water Running associated with photobiomodulation in individuals with chronic nonspecific low back pain. Individuals of both sexes, sedentary, who present chronic low back pain, aged between 30 and 55 years (middle-aged individuals) who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be invited to participate. Anthropometric measurements, maximal stress test, functional tests, physiological measures and questionnaires concerning disability and pain, besides psychological ones, will be carried out. After the evaluations, the participants will be randomized into three experimental groups with 15 participants in each: the first group will be the training group that will hold interval training sessions in addition to continuous training sessions (GT). The second group will perform the same training model, and before the training sessions the LED will be applied (GTL). And the third group will only receive the LED application (GL).

Our primary aim is to assess the feasibility of conducting yoga research among active-duty military personnel with Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) and/or Chronic Neck Pain (CNP). In addition, we will evaluate the yoga intervention preferences and refine an existing yoga intervention to address those needs. The study will prepare us for a R01 funded pragmatic clinical trial of yoga for CLBP and CNP in active-duty military.

Introduction Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a highly prevalent health condition, and the leading cause of years lived with disability. The high prevalence causes a substantial impact on patients, communities and health-care systems. There is a continuing challenge to offer evidence-based rehabilitation for patients with CLBP. There is a lack of studies on adequate follow-up approaches to maintain successful treatment. No earlier study has assessed if the positive treatment effects of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation intervention can be maintained with an intervention alternating between inpatient interventions and home-based activities. Aim To assess if a novel multidisciplinary rehabilitation intervention is more effective in maintaining successful treatment after 6 months, than a usual multidisciplinary rehabilitation intervention in patients with CLBP. The novel intervention is a 14-week program alternating between in total three weeks of inpatient intervention and home-based activities. This alternation allows the participants time and opportunity to adapt and transfer inpatient learning to activities and participation in their own environment in interaction with everyday life situations and surroundings. Usual care is a four-week inpatient intervention. It is hypothesized that the intervention will be superior to usual care. Method The study will be conducted at The Danish Rheumatism Associations' rehabilitation centre Sano Aarhus. 160 participants with CLBP will be randomly allocated to one of two groups. The novel intervention consists of: 1) a pre-admission day, 2) two weeks of home-based activities, 3) two-week inpatient period, 4) four weeks of home-based activities, 5) 1st two-days inpatient follow-up, 6) six weeks of home-based activities and 7) 2nd two-days inpatient follow-up. Usual care consists of a four-week inpatient intervention. The two groups will be compared according to disability, pain, pain self-efficacy, quality of life, depression and exercise capacity. Relevance The present study has emerged out of the fields where patients, clinicians and researchers intersect and is consequently highly clinically relevant. If positive treatment effects can be maintained or even improved in the long term, the results may serve as inspiration for the design of multidisciplinary rehabilitation interventions in clinical practice; this will be valuable for future patients with CLBP.

Randomized clinical trial to compare the effectiveness and safety of double (traditional) versus single (Asian) cupping techniques in chronic low back pain.

The overall goal of the Lumbar Image Reporting with Epidemiology (LIRE) is to perform a large, pragmatic, cluster randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of a simple, inexpensive and easy to deploy intervention - insertion of epidemiological benchmarks into lumbar spine imaging reports - at reducing subsequent tests and treatments. The investigator's main hypothesis is that for patients referred from primary care providers, inserting epidemiological evidence in lumbar spine imaging reports will reduce subsequent diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, including cross-sectional imaging (MR/CT), opioid prescriptions, spinal injections and surgery.

The study will establish data on the function of trunk muscles in healthy and low back pain patient's pre and post dry needling treatment. This will help in understanding the underlying mechanism of this treatment and reveal the effect of dry needling on muscle performance. Study hypothesis is that an improvement of back muscle function following dry needling procedure will be found.

Drug therapy in patients with chronic low back pain is a major challenge for physicians. One of the problems is the lacking knowledge in prediction of drug efficacy in a chosen patient. Usually one of the classes of pain medication is given to patients with a similar clinical picture, although different pain mechanisms may be responsible for this clinical picture. Another reason for variable drug efficacy are genetic polymorphisms, this may be the reason why an unique drug produces different responses (from a lacking analgesic effect up to excessive effect or side-effects. Quantitative sensory testing is a method that documents alterations in the pain perception system. Linking genetic polymorphisms to quantitative sensory testing may give us a tool for anticipation of drug efficacy.

Epidural injection will be completed under fluoroscopy and all patients will receive 1-4 mg of Midazolam for relaxation before procedure and, if needed, 50-100 mcg of Fentanyl intravenous (IV). Radiopaque contrast (Omnipaque 300), for confirming the epidural position of the needle, steroids and local anesthetic agents will be used according to the physician performing the block and will not be controlled by the study. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive either inhaled Entonox along with the interventional block they are scheduled for or oxygen. They will be blinded about the treatment they are receiving. Those randomized to Entonox will inhale the gas through a mouthpiece throughout the procedure and also continue to receive it for a total of 4 hours in the recovery. Those randomized to the oxygen group will receive oxygen through a similar mouthpiece for the entire duration of the procedure and recovery for 4 hours. Following completion of procedure the patient will be transferred to recovery and monitored for 3-5 hours then discharged home with instructions. Possible side effects will be monitored and recorded, pain score of patient will be recorded before discharge. All the patients will receive standard instructions regarding physical back exercises. This will be repeated for every procedure up to maximum of three blocks. The patients will be followed during each block and over a period of 1, 3, 6 and 12 months and on each follow-up visit will complete computerized set of questionnaires as they did before the procedure. The patients charts will be then reviewed for one year after the initial procedure to determine if further epidural steroid injections or surgery for the presenting problem were required. It is anticipated that the appropriate number of patients will be enrolled within six months of study initiation.