Comparative Efficacy of Hip Flexor Muscle Strengthening with Femoral Nerve Stretching and Facet Joint Mobilization for Lumbar Spondylitis

ABSTRACT

Background: Lumbar Spondylitis (LS) is a common term that denotes degenerative changes that develop in trauma-center patients, specific age groups, and head injury patients. A study done on Indian population reported 60% to 90% of radiological changes of L4 at L5-S1 levels in asymptomatic individuals. These degenerative changes in the lumbar spine may remain asymptomatic or can present as pure axial lumbar pain, lumbar radiculopathy, lumbar myelopathy, or lumbar myeloradiculopathy. So, the aim of the study was to check the effectiveness of hip flexor muscle strengthening, femoral nerve muscle stretching with facet joint mobilization for lumbar spondylitis. Materials and methods: 60 patients were included in the study which was divided into two groups; Group A and Group B, 30 patients in each group. Subjects were randomly selected and assigned to each group. Pre-test measurements of the patient were done with the help of two measures - RolandMorris Low Back Pain and Disability Questionnaire for disability and Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Goniometer was used for range motion of lumbar spine movements done in each group. The Subjects in Group-A were given hip flexor muscles strengthening with femoral nerve stretching for lumbar region for 45 minutes for 4 days in a week for four weeks where the subject were sitting. The Subjects in Group-B were given femoral nerve stretching with facet joint mobilization for 45 minutes for 4 days in a week for four weeks where the subjects were in supine and prone position and remain Sreenivasu Kotagiri, Neeti Mathur, Ashwin Kumar. Comparative Efficacy of Hip Flexor Muscle Strengthening with Femoral Nerve Stretching and Facet Joint Mobilization for Lumbar Spondylitis. IAIM, 2019; 6(9) 49-57. Page 50 relaxed with the feet uncrossed. Result analysis was done by Wilcoxon Sum Rank Test (Mann Whitney U Test). Results: On comparing Group A and Group B for post-treatment VAS score and RMQ score, results showed a significant difference (p=0.001) in improvement in terms of VAS and RMQ. The overall study proved that hip flexor muscle strengthening, femoral nerve stretching with facet joint mobilization for lumbar spondylitis in improving Pain and decreasing the disability level in lumbar radiculopathy and reduce tightness subjects. Conclusion: The analysis obtained indicated that Group B (femoral nerve stretching with facet joint mobilization) showed more significant improvement when compared to Group A ( hip flexor muscles strengthening with femoral nerve stretching).