EVALUATION OF PELVIC ANGLES IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE AND CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

Abstract Introduction: Low back pain is a major health problem that mostly affects adults. Despite great efforts to identify the causes of this pain, they are still unknown. Several observations have been concerning the effect of multiple factors on low back pain. Postural changes are one of the main risk factors of low back pain. Many studies have emphasized the importance of sagittal spine?pelvic angle in maintaining proper and balanced posture in normal people. Hence, the present paper aims to study these changes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on patients with acute and chronic low back pain referred to Baghaeipour Clinic of Shahid Sadoughi Hospital, Yazd, Iran, from February 2015 to April 2016. Anterior-posterior and lateral pelvic graphs were measured for patients. Patients with a history of surgery, spondylolisthesis, history of fracture in lumbar spine, and pathological fractures were excluded. Information obtained from patients and measurement of sacral inclination, pelvic tilt, and sacral angle was recorded in a predeveloped questionnaire. Pain intensity of patients also was measured and recorded using the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire. All data and information were statistically analyzed with the discriptional analysis in SPSS version 20. Results: One hundred patients (54 male, 46 female) with a mean age of 48.45±14.61 years were enrolled. The mean value of sacral inclination, pelvic tilt, and the sacral angle was obtained 7.92±31.84, 6.79±22.19, and 5.65±32.40, respectively. In addition, the mean disability percentage of patients was 40.10±10.22. Conclusion: The study findings indicate changes in the posture of the spine and pelvis in patients with low back pain in both acute and chronic types. The changes that occurred in these patients may be associated with the job status, underlying diseases, and other effective factors. To identify these factors, more extensive studies with larger samples are required.