A prospective study of lumbo-pelvic coordination in patients with non-chronic low back pain

Despite the current knowledge about abnormalities in the lumbo-pelvic coordination of patients with non-specific low back pain (LBP), it is unclear how such abnormalities change with time. Timing and magnitude aspects of lumbo-pelvic coordination during a trunk forward bending and backward return task along with subjective measures of pain and disability were collected at three-time points over a six-month period from 29 patients who had non-chronic LBP at the time of enrollment in the study. To enable investigation of abnormalities in lumbo-pelvic coordination of patients, we also included lumbo-pelvic coordination data of age and gender-matched back healthy individuals from an earlier study of our group. Finally, differences in lumbo-pelvic coordination between patients with moderate-severe LBP (i.e., those whose level of pain was ≥ 4 (out of 10) at all three data collection sessions; n = 8) and patients with low-moderate LBP (n = 21) were investigated. There were clear distinctions in measures of lumbo-pelvic coordination between patients with low-moderate and moderate-severe LBP. Contrary to our expectation, however, the abnormalities in magnitude aspects of lumbo-pelvic coordination were larger (F > 4.84, P < 0.012) in patients with low-moderate LBP. These abnormalities in patients with low-moderate LBP, compared to controls, included larger (>12°) pelvic and thoracic rotations as well as smaller (>10°) lumbar flexion. The abnormal lumbo-pelvic coordination of patients with non-specific LBP, observed at baseline, persisted (F < 1.96, P > 0.156) or worsen (F > 3.48, P < 0.04) over the course of study period despite significant improvement in their pain (18% decrease; F = 12.10, P < 0.001) and disability (10% decrease; F = 4.39, P = 0.017). Distinct but lingering abnormalities in lumbo-pelvic coordination, observed in patients with low-moderate and moderate-severe LBP, might have a role in persistence and/or relapse of symptoms in patients with non-specific LBP. Such inferences, however, should further be studied in future via investigation of the relationship between abnormalities in lumbo-pelvic coordination and clinical presentation of LBP.