Evaluation of the instant effect of myofacial release on pain, flexibility and body mobility in patients with chronic back pain.

In our study, it was aimed to determine the immediate effect of myofascial release on pain, flexibility and trunk mobility in chronic low back pain. Forty patients with chronic low back pain participated in this experimental study. Participants were grouped as randomized controlled. Visual Analogue Scale was used for pain assessment. Sit-Reach Test was used for flexibility evaluation and straight leg raising test with goniometric measurement was applied for Hamstring flexibility. Modified Schober Test was used to evaluate trunk mobility. All evaluations were made just before and immediately after the application to measure the instantaneous effect of the applications applied to the experimental and control groups. The comparison of the evaluation data of the individuals in the same group before and after the treatment was made using the "Wilcoxen Sum Rank Test", one of the non-parametric tests. The comparison of the evaluation data of both groups before and after the treatment was made using the non-parametric evaluation "Mann-Whitney U Test". In intragroup comparisons, statistically significant difference was found in all outcome measures in both the experimental and control groups (p˂0.05). When the difference value (delta difference) occurred after the applications compared to the pre-application in the outcome measurements, when the Sit-Reach Test and Left straight leg lifting test showed a significant difference (p˂0.05); VAS, Modified Schober's Test and right straight leg lift test were similar between groups (p˃0.05). In our study, in which we examined the immediate effect of myofascial release method on pain, flexibility and functional mobility in patients with chronic low back pain, it was determined that it provided positive gains in all outcome measures. In addition, it was determined that myofascial release application provided more improvement in the values of the Sit-Reach test and Right Straight Leg Lift test compared to the classical massage application.