Low-Level Heat Wrap More Effective Than Oral Analgesics For Acute Low Back Pain

05/28/2002 By David Loshak

 Continuous low-level heat wrap therapy is better than treatment with both acetaminophen and ibuprofen for low back pain.

 Investigators in Great Neck, New York, and Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, reached this conclusion after a prospective, randomised, single (investigator) blind, comparative efficacy trial comparing continuous low-level heat wrap therapy (400 Celsius for eight hours a day) versus ibuprofen 1200 mg/day and acetaminophen 4000 mg/day in people with acute non-specific low back pain.

 Until now, the investigators noted, the efficacy of topical heat methods compared with oral analgesic treatment of low back pain had not been established. The investigators randomly assigned 371 patients to heat wrap (n=113), acetaminophen (n=113 or ibuprofen (n=106)

for efficacy evaluation, or to oral placebo (n=20) or unheated back wrap (n=19) for blinding.

Outcome measures included pain relief, muscle stiffness, lateral trunk flexibility and disability. Efficacy was measured over two treatment days and two follow-up days. On the first day, pain relief for the heat wrap was significantly more than with ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Extended mean pain relief on days 3- 4 for the heat wrap was also significantly higher than with the two drugs. Lateral trunk flexibility improved significantly with the heat wrap

compared with both drugs, also.

0 תגובות

השאירו תגובה

רוצה להצטרף לדיון?
תרגישו חופשי לתרום!

כתיבת תגובה

מידע נוסף לעיונך

כתבות בנושאים דומים

הנך גולש/ת באתר כאורח/ת.

במידה והנך מנוי את/ה מוזמן/ת לבצע כניסה מזוהה וליהנות מגישה לכל התכנים המיועדים למנויים
להמשך גלישה כאורח סגור חלון זה