The effect of balneotherapy to the level of pain on patients with chronic lumbar pain

In this work, we aimed to evaluate the effect of balneotherapy to the pain of patience with chronic lumber pain. Required the permissions from Gaziantep University Ethical Council, two hospitals which the research would be done and the patients who would take place are obtained in advance. Controlled and experimentally performed on the patients who were staying in physical therapy and rehabilitation centers of the two institutions between March 2017 and June 2017. The number of samples of the study was determined by performing power analysis and the study was completed with a total of 61 patients with chronic low back pain. The data of the study, the questionnaire containing patient characteristics was collected using the 'Visually Analogue Scale' (VAS) and 'Oswestry Disability Scale'. The total score of the scale varies between 0-50. As the total score increases, the level of functional disability also increases. . Patients with a diagnosis of chronic low back pain were divided into two groups: the intervention group receiving balneotherapy and physical therapy and the control group receiving only physical therapy. Intervention group, received balneotherapy for 20 minutes every day, by entering all the bodies into the pools with thermo-mineral water at 40 degrees; and physiotherapy five days a week, total 15 sessions; for 3 weeks. For the control group who received only physical therapy, 15 sessions of physiotherapy were applied for five days a week for three weeks. Physiotherapy applied to both groups in the presence of a physiotherapist as it is the routine application of the institution. Question form, Oswestry disability scale, VAS pain scale were applied to all patients at the beginning of the treatment. Oswestry disability scale and VAS pain scale were reapplied to both groups at the end of their treatments. The t test, Paired samples t test, Pearson Chi-square test, Mann Whitney-U, Kruskall Walls and Fisher Exact tests were used for comparison of data. There was no significant difference (p = 0.788) in terms of VAS point averages between the groups before treatment, however the difference after treatment was found to be significant. Again, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of Oswestry score before treatment (p> 0,05), but the difference after treatment was significant In conclusion, balneotherapy, which is added to the routine physical therapy program in our study, showed better improvement in the pain levels of the patients and in the functional deficits in daily life activities according to the physical therapy applied program. In line with these results, patients with chronic low back pain may be offered balneotherapy as well as their current therapies.