Therapeutic ultrasound for chronic low-back pain
Two articles on PainSci cite Ebadi 2014: 1. The Complete Guide to Low Back Pain 2. Does Ultrasound Therapy Work?
PainSci commentary on 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 wherever possible.
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,” Pippa Shanks, Michael Curran, Paul Fletcher, and Richard Thompson, Foot (Edinb), 2010.
- “Therapeutic ultrasound for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip,” Anne Ws Rutjes, Eveline Nüesch, Rebekka Sterchi, and Peter Jüni, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2010.
- “Effect of therapeutic ultrasound on tendons,” Wen-Chung Tsai, Sf-T Tang, and Fang-Chen Liang, Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2011.
- “Therapeutic ultrasound for carpal tunnel syndrome,” Matthew J Page, Denise O’Connor, Veronica Pitt, and Nicola Massy-Westropp, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013.
- “Therapeutic ultrasound for acute ankle sprains,” Michel Pj van den Bekerom, Daniëlle Awm van der Windt, Gerben Ter Riet, Geert J van der Heijden, and Lex M Bouter, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2011.
- “The efficacy of therapeutic ultrasound for rotator cuff tendinopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” François Desmeules, Jennifer Boudreault, Jean-Sébastien Roy, Clermont Dionne, Pierre Frémont, and Joy C MacDermid, Physical Therapy in Sport, 2015.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- No long-term effects after a three-week open-label placebo treatment for chronic low back pain: a three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Kleine-Borgmann 2022 Pain.
- Exercise and education versus saline injections for knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled equivalence trial. Bandak 2022 Ann Rheum Dis.
- Association of Lumbar MRI Findings with Current and Future Back Pain in a Population-based Cohort Study. Kasch 2022 Spine (Phila Pa 1976).
- A double-blinded randomised controlled study of the value of sequential intravenous and oral magnesium therapy in patients with chronic low back pain with a neuropathic component. Yousef 2013 Anaesthesia.
- Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Richards 2021 Phys Ther.