AIM: To identify the clinical effect of pain-free exercises on the female osteoporosis patients with spinal compressive fracture. METHODS: (1) Subjects: during August 2005 to March 2007, thirty female osteoporosis patients with spinal fracture, aged (66.43 +/- 7.20) years, were recruited from Out-patient Clinic or Department of Rehabilitation in West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Using the random digital table of SPSS software, all the patients were allocated to experimental group and control group, and each group included 15 patients. (2) Treatment: the patients of control group received the conventional therapy: calcium, vitamin D, calcitonin and low-frequency pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, and the patients of experimental group received not only the same therapy as the control group, but also the pain-free exercises for 10 to 30 minutes once, two times a day for 4 weeks. All the patients were evaluated before the therapy and at the end of the first and the fourth weeks after the therapy. (3) Assessment: the evaluation items included visual analogue scale (VAS): the patients were demanded to mark the scale of pain on a 10-cm staff guage, 0 as no pain and 10 as the most pain; timed up from bed (TUFB): the time of patients in supine position sitting up independently was measured; timed up and go (TUG): The time of patients standing up from chairs independently, walking for 3 m and returning was measured. RESULTS: All the 30 patients entered the analysis of result. VAS scores, TUFB and TUG of two groups at the end of the first and the fourth weeks decreased compared with the initial level (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, p < 0.05). At the end of the first and the fourth weeks, the amount that the TUG decreased in the experimental group was more than that in the control group (p = 0.002, p = 0.000), and there was no significant difference in the decreased amounts of VAS scores and TUFB between experimental group and control group (p > 0.05). At the end of the fourth week, the levels of TUFB and TUG in the experimental group were less than those in the control group (p = 0.000, p = 0.014). CONCLUSION: The exercises within a pain-free range can effectively reduce the pain and improve the impaired motor function c aused by osteoporostic spinal compressive fracture in female patients.

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