Effects of Targeted Manipulative Thrust in Comparison to General Manipulation Thrust on Low Back Pain

CRITICAL APPRAISAL
REPORT

Contents
Overview....................................................................................................................................................3
Critical Appraisal......................................................................................................................................3
Outcomes/Results......................................................................................................................................4
Summary....................................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................7

Overview
Spinal Manipulation is referred to a therapy that puts together the moving of joints,
massage, exercise as well as physical therapy. It is basically designed to relieve the pressure on
the joints and improve the functioning of nerves. The process involves targeting a particular level
of spine wherein the person is facing issues with movement (Borges, Bortolazzo and Neto,
2018). Low back pain is a very common condition that affects nearly 12% of the global
population at any given point of time. The purpose of the research paper is to evaluate the effects
of a targeted manipulative thrust in comparison to the thrust that is directly applied to the lumbar
region. In order to conduct the research effectively, sixty subjects were allocated to two groups
randomly. The subjects in the first group received targeted manipulative thrust, whereas the
subjects in the other group received a general manipulation thrust at the lumbar region of the
spine.
Critical Appraisal
The respective research paper is primarily based on comparing targeted thrust
manipulation with general thrust manipulation in patients who suffer with low back pain. The
subjects that were a part of the sample, were divided into two groups, wherein the members of
one group received targeted manipulation thrust while others received general manipulative
thrust (Wirth and et. al., 2019). This was done using a minimization technique that employed two
factors, gender to govern allocation as well as body ass index. People who were suffering from
low back pain were selected as subjects for the study and were initially screened if they were
eligible. The criteria was that the subjects had to be between the age groups of 20 and 60 years,
who had been suffering a pain in their lower back for at least 3 weeks. The patients were
informed beforehand, that they would receive one of the two types of spinal manipulation
technique. But they were not told about what technique they will receive. There are both benefits
and strengths as well as flaws and weaknesses of doing so. Telling the patients before hand
helped in getting their consent and making sure that the complete process was done in an
effective manner.
Three testing sessions were conducted and during each of these sessions, they were asked
to complete a Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire or RMDQ (Deyo, 2017). The results were