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Effectiveness of non-surgical treatment combined with supervised exercise for lumbar spinal stenosis: A systematic
Ryunosuke Urata1,1, Tatsuya Igawa1,2,3,1, Shomaru Ito4
1Department of Rehabilitation, International University of Health and Welfare Mita Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Background:
The benefits of combining supervised exercise in the non-surgical treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is unclear.
Objective:
To compare the effectiveness of non-surgical treatments with and without supervised exercise for pain intensity, symptom severity, functional impairment/disability, walking distance, and quality of life (QOL) in LSS patients.
Methods:
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating combinations of supervised exercises were searched using four electronic databases up to August 13, 2020. Meta-analysis was conducted for immediate and long-term results.
Results:
Three studies were identified, including 244 participants. Immediate-term results showed that leg pain intensity (mean distance [MD]: -0.94, 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]: -1.60 to -0.29, p< 0.01) and symptom severity (MD: -0.29, 95% CI: -0.50 to -0.08, p< 0.01) were lower in the study group than in the control group, and walking distance (MD: 415.83, 95% CI: 298.15 to 533.50, p< 0.001) and QOL were higher in the study group. Long-term results showed that functional disability/impairment (MD: -0.27, 95% CI: -0.49 to -0.04, p< 0.05) was lower in the study group than in the control group, and walking distance and QOL were higher in the study group.
Conclusion:
The number of studies on this topic was small and limited. Combinations of non-surgical treatment and supervised exercise may not provide significant benefits.
