Effects of lumbar Kinesio taping on low back pain, disability and range of motion

INTERVENTION: The intervention group will include both interventions (habitual multimodal treatment plus kinesio tape) which will commence at the same time. The whole treatment will be administered by a physiotherapist. It will be perfomed during 15 sessions: once a day, from Monday to Friday, for three weeks. The neuromuscular bandage must be changed every three days. A: Habitual multimodal treatment. 65 minutes each session, comprising thermotherapy, TENS and stretching as follows: a) Thermotherapy: continuous microwave at 80Hz, on the lumbar area for 15 minutes. b) TENS for pulsed asymmetrical biphasic rectangular current, pulse rate 2Hz, pulse width 150 micros, intensity of the current between 40 and 100 mA according to the patient´s perception. The current will be applied by means of two channels, putting four adhesive silicone quadrangular electrodes (two on each channel) of 5 cm2 on paravertebral lumbar muscles for 30 minutes. c) Passive stretchings of paravertebral lumbar muscles, psoas‐iliac, square lumbar and pyramidal muscles. Each exercise will be performed from 3 to 5 times per session keeping the stretching position from 10 to 20 seconds. The total time for stretchings will be of 20 minutes. B: Kinesio tape Use of neuromuscular bandage on the lumbar area using the muscular technique: three strips of 5 cms of width (two in vertical position on the paravertebral zone and one across on the point of maximum pain) will be placed in the following way: a) With the patient seated in neutral position, the bases of the neuromuscular bandage in the sacrum are fixed. b) The patient flexes and rotates the trunk to one side and the strip of the bandage on the paravertebral lumbar muscles to the contrary side of the rotation is also placed. c) The same operation is performed in the contralateral side. With the patient in neutral position d) The upright moorings are finally fixed exceeding the lumbar curvature. e) A strip of bandage in horizontal direction with a certain tension in the vertebra with maximum pain is placed. f) Finally, the moorings of this last one are fixed but without any tension. CONDITION: Chronic non‐specific low back pain PRIMARY OUTCOME: Disability, assessed using the Oswestry Low Back Disability Questionnaire Low back pain severity self‐perceived, assessed by a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) ; SECONDARY OUTCOME: Pain‐free active lumbar range of motion. Flexion and extension evaluated using modified Schober’s test. Lateral bending assessed using Melling´s test. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Patients of both gender diagnosed with chronic non‐specific low back pain, with pain, disability and limitation of the range of motion, between the age of 30 to 65.