OBJECTIVE: To determine if the use of an isokinetic device for trunk exercise is more effective than standard physiotherapy in promoting motor disinhibition for patients with chronic low back pain. POPULATION: chronic low back pain outpatients who are treated in a Rheumatology or PM and R unit within an academic hospital. METHODOLOGY: This is a prospective, controlled, randomized study, with two groups of treatment: one treated with isokinetic techniques and the other with standard physiotherapy, six sessions for each treatment during 2 weeks. Outcome measures include pain (VSA), trunk mobility (Schober index, distance from fingers to floor), muscle extensibility and muscle strength (Biering-Sorensen and Shirado-Ito test), and functional capacity (Quebec scale). RESULTS: Seventeen subjects were enrolled. The results suggest that both isokinetic exercise and physiotherapy result in improved range of motion, extensibility, muscle strength, and pain, without any significant superiority of one technique over the other. However, each technique has specific advantage. DISCUSSION: Despite methodologic limitations, this study shows that isokinetic exercise is not better than physiotherapy in reversing motor inhibition in chronic low back pain. Our results are consistent with those of other studies in the literature, with regard to the absence of established overall superiority of one exercise technique or program over the other in this population, and with regard to partial benefits of specific exercise techniques. CONCLUSION: The non-specific benefit of one technique indicates that further studies are needed to evaluate the benefit of combining exercise techniques in chronic low back pain, in order to address the multiple factors involved in this pathology.

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