Effectiveness of electromagnetic field application on klinical parameters in patients with lumber discal herniation

Lomber disc hernia is a clinic antity characterized by back and leg pain due to degenerate discoid lumbar spinal nerve root compression. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of magnetic field therapy on clinical parameters in patients with lumbar disc herniation. Between 2017-2018, a total of 86 patients applied to outpatient clinic of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital who diagnosed as lomber disc hernia radiologically who met the study criteria were included in the study. 80 of these patients have completed the study. The patients were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in both groups received conventional TENS and hotpack (superficial hot application) therapy. In addition to these treatments, the study group (n: 40) was treated with pulse magnetic field therapy (60% intensity, 50 Hz frekans, for 20 minutes) while the control group (n: 40) was given a magnetic field without current flow (sham magnetic field). The patients were assessed before the study, at the end of the study (week 3) and 9 weeks after the end of the treatment by using Visual Analog Scale (VAS), the Nottingham Health Profile (NSP), the Oswetry Lumbar Disability Scale (ODI), the Roland-Morris Functional Rating Scale (RDI) and the Beck Depression Scale (BDI). At the end of the study, there was a statistically significant difference between the groups in pain, sleep, physical activity, social isolation functional evaluations of VAS and NSP subparameters. Oswestry Lumbar Pain Disability scale and RDI assessment showed improvement in both groups, but this improvement was not statistically significant among the groups. There was a statistically significant improvement in the study group but no significant improvement was found in the control group. In conclusion, Magnetic field therapy is an effective method for the conservative treatment of lumber pain caused by lomber disc hernia. It is expected that parameters such as personal care, lifting, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, social life and travel will be improved due to the decrease in pain. Despite a significant decrease in pain in our current study, improvement in these parameters has been partial. More randomized, double-blind controlled studies are needed to determine the level of evidence for the magnetotherapy efficacy.