EFFECTIVENESS OF KINESIOTAPING IN IMPROVING PAIN, LUMBAR EXTENSION RANGE OF MOTION AND DISABILITY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC NON SPECIFIC LOW BACK PAIN

Background: Various treatment methods have been used to improve pain, back-specific disability such as manual therapy, back school therapy, strengthening and stretching exercises, kinesio Taping (KT) and variou s treatment modalities. The discrepancy in the outcome of many studies creates doubts that whether or not Physi cal Therapy have a positive impact on improving pain and back specific disability. Kinesio Taping is a n ovel technique which is said to improve pain and disability in subjects with Non-specific low back pain. In spite o f KT popularity, the efficacy of its technique has not been adequately researched. Purpose of the Study: To find out whether there is any difference in effectiveness of kinesio Taping in conjunction with conventional therapy as compared to conventional therapy alone in improving low back pain, lumbar extension range of motion and back- specific disability. Methods: 30 subjects were randomly assigned into two groups. Group 1(n=15) subjects received conventional therapy, Group B (n=15) subjects received Kinesio Taping in conjunction with convention al therapy for 4 weeks. The treatment was given for 1 session per week for 4 weeks and effects were recorded at 2 nd and 4 th week after intervention. Result: Independent ‘t’ test was used for between group analysis and repeated measure ANOVA is used for within group analysis. ANOVA was followed by Post-hoc Newman Keuls test to find out the significance of mean difference for between group comparisons. Subject in KT group showed be tter and significant results than conventional group in all parameters at 4 th week. Discussion & Conclusion: In the present study we found that there was significant improvement in VAS and RMQ in KT group than conven tional group. There was a significantly higher improvement of 61.2% and 61.5% in VAS (back pain) and RMQ (b ack- specific disability) respectively in KT than conventional group. The improvement in lumbar extensio n range of motion improved 52.4% higher in patients those who received the Kinesio Taping in conjunction with Conventional therapy than those who received the Conventional therapy alone, but did not reach the s tatistical significance. Brief Summary and Potential Implications: The present study thus, suggests physiotherapists to use Kinesio Taping in conjunction with Conventional therapy in clinical practice for management of p atients with Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain.