The Use of Real Time Ultrasound Feedback in Teaching Abdominal Hollowing Exercises

Low Back Pain Clinical Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00005771
• Other study ID #: NCRR-M01RR00109-0746
• Secondary ID: M01RR000109
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• First received: June 1, 2000
• Last updated: June 23, 2005

Study information

• Verified date: November 2001
• Source: National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Federal Government
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Recently, physical therapists have begun treating people who have mechanical low back pain, hypothesized to be caused by segmental instability in the lumbar spine, with a very specific exercise program consisting of trunk stabilization exercises. The theory behind the use of trunk stabilization exercises to treat lower back pain is that active contraction of the trunk local segmental muscles helps to control inter-segmental movement in the spine. The initial trunk stabilization exercise that physical therapists teach patients is an abdominal drawing in maneuver often called an abdominal hollowing exercise (AHE). A challenge for physical therapists is to establish the most effective means of teaching people to contract the relevant muscles needed to perform the AHE. The purpose of this study is to examine if supplementing the typical clinical instruction for teaching the AHE with visual ultrasound feedback to the patient is effective at reducing the length of time it takes an individual to learn to perform an AHE.

Three groups of research volunteers will be taught how to do the AHE while receiving different kinds of feedback about their performance in order to determine which type of feedback is most effective in assisting people to learn the AHE. Group 1 will not receive any feedback about performance; Group 2 will receive feedback from palpation and verbal descriptive alone; and Group 3 will receive feedback from palpation, verbal descriptive feedback, and real time ultrasound. For the initial test when subjects are learning the AHE, the number of trials until the subject demonstrates his/her third correct AHE will be the outcome variable. For the retention test, the outcome variable will be the percentage of trials (out of ten) of correctly performed AHEs in the absence of visual, verbal or palpation feedback.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 0
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years to 60 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy volunteers

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Low Back Pain

Intervention

Device:
• Visual utrasound feedback

Procedure:
• Abdominal Hollowing Exercise

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Vermont	Burlington	Vermont

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States,