The effect of postural stability of trunk stabilization exercises on lipoedema patients

The aim of our study is to investigate the effect of trunk stabilization exercises in addition to active range of motion exercises on body composition, pain, edema, trunk endurance, functional capacity and postural stability. Lipoedema is a chronic, progressive adipose tissue disorder that is mostly seen as a symmetrical growth of the hips and legs, affecting women. The study is included 32 female patients with a mean age of 53,06 ± 7,92 who were diagnosed as upper and lower leg lipoedema. The subjects were divided into two groups as experimental (n = 17) and control (n = 15) groups. The physiotherapy program of the control group consisted of active range of motion exercises and the physiotherapy program of the experimental group consisted of trunk stabilization exercises in addition to the active range of motion exercises. After the demographic data of all cases were recorded, the extremity volume (circumference measurement), body composition analysis, trunk endurance, pain (Visual Analog Scale), postural stability (Biodex Balance System®) and functional capacities (6 Minutes Walking Test) were evaluated. After the six-week treatment program, all evaluations were repeated. SPSS (SPSS 21.0) program was used for statistical analysis of the data. For all analyzes, the level of significance was accepted as p <0.05. As a result of our study, a statistically significant improvement was found in pain, extremity circumference measurement and 6 minutes walking test values in both groups. In addition, body composition, trunk endurance and postural stability were found significantly different in the experimental group. Considering the intergroup evaluation; postural stability, body composition, trunk endurance, extremity circumference measurement, walking distance values were found statistically superior to the experimental group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in pain scores. In our study planned to compare the effects of body stabilization exercises on postural stability in patients with lower and upper leg lipoedema in addition to active range of motion exercise program, it was concluded that active range of motion exercise program was sufficient to reduce pain in lower and upper leg lipoedema patients. It was concluded that trunk stabilization exercises in addition to active range of motion exercises program are more effective method to improve the body composition, trunk endurance and postural stability in reducing the volume of the limb and increasing the functional capacity. Keywords: Lipoedema, exercise, pain, trunk stabilization, postural stability