
Physical Therapy & Rehab
The effectiveness of physical therapy for lumbar spinal stenosis remains unknown
This report has been verified
by one or more authors of the
original publication.
Phys Ther. 2013 Dec;93(12):1646-60. doi: 10.2522/ptj.20120379. Epub 2013 Jul 25
10 studies (5 RCTs, 2 controlled trials, 2 mixed-design studies, and 1 longitudinal cohort study) assessing the effectiveness of physical therapy interventions in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis were included in this review. The results from this study indicated that there is moderate-quality evidence suggesting pain and disability (but not walking distance) is significantly better in patients treated surgically at 2 years compared to those treated with physical therapy. The remaining conclusions were based on low-quality evidence and thus the effectiveness of physical therapy in the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis remains uncertain.
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