Therapeutic ultrasound for chronic low-back pain
PainSci summary of Ebadi 2014?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided at the bottom of the page, as often as possible. ★★★☆☆?3-star ratings are for typical studies with no more (or less) than the usual common problems. Ratings are a highly subjective opinion, and subject to revision at any time. If you think this paper has been incorrectly rated, please let me know.
An inconclusive but underwhelming review of 7 small trials of ultrasound for chronic low back pain … none of them good quality. “There is some evidence that therapeutic ultrasound has a small effect on improving low-back function in the short term, but this benefit is unlikely to be clinically important.”
original abstract†Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: No high quality evidence was found to support the use of ultrasound for improving pain or quality of life in patients with non-specific chronic LBP. There is some evidence that therapeutic ultrasound has a small effect on improving low-back function in the short term, but this benefit is unlikely to be clinically important. Evidence from comparisons between other treatments and therapeutic ultrasound for chronic LBP were indeterminate and generally of low quality. Since there are few high quality randomised trials and the available trials are very small, future large trials with valid methodology are likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate.
related content
- “The effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound for musculoskeletal conditions of the lower limb: A literature review,” an article in Foot (Edinb), 2010.
- “Therapeutic ultrasound for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip,” an article in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2010.
- “Effect of therapeutic ultrasound on tendons,” an article in Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2011.
- “Therapeutic ultrasound for carpal tunnel syndrome,” an article in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013.
- “Therapeutic ultrasound for acute ankle sprains,” an article in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2011.
- “The efficacy of therapeutic ultrasound for rotator cuff tendinopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” an article in Physical Therapy in Sport, 2015.
These two articles on PainScience.com cite Ebadi 2014 as a source:
- PS Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Low back pain myths debunked and all your treatment options reviewed
- PS Does Ultrasound Therapy Work? — Many concerns about the widespread usage of therapeutic ultrasound, especially extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT)
