Toward a clinical test of lumbar spine kinesthesia

Poor lumbar spine kinesthetic awareness is often observed in low back pain patients and is usually evaluated qualitatively in the clinical situation. The purpose of this study was to investigate a simple, kinesthetic test for the lumbar spine. The experimental protocol utilized a 3Space Fastrak to d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy 1996-12, Vol.24 (6), p.354-358
Main Authors: Maffey-Ward, L, Jull, G, Wellington, L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Female
Humans
Kinesthesis - physiology
Lumbar Vertebrae - physiology
Lumbosacral Region - physiology
Male
Posture
Predictive Value of Tests
Range of Motion, Articular - physiology
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Summary:Poor lumbar spine kinesthetic awareness is often observed in low back pain patients and is usually evaluated qualitatively in the clinical situation. The purpose of this study was to investigate a simple, kinesthetic test for the lumbar spine. The experimental protocol utilized a 3Space Fastrak to determine the error, within and between days, of 10 healthy subjects in reproducing a neutral lumbopelvic (T10-S2) position following movement into flexion. The mean value of the repositioning error for the sagittal plane movement (flexion/extension) over the three repetitions within day 1 was 2.6 +/- 1.2 degrees and for day 2 was 2.6 +/- 1.7 degrees. No statistically significant difference existed between days. These repositioning errors were well within the ranges described by other authors for various asymptomatic joint complexes. These results provide a basis for further evaluation of this test on patients with low back pain to investigate its ability to detect any kinesthetic deficit.
ISSN:0190-6011
1938-1344
DOI:10.2519/jospt.1996.24.6.354