NOVEL APPROACHES TO TREATING NONSPECIFIC LOW BACK PAIN

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the impact of therapy with chondroitin sulfate (CS) and glucosamine (GA) on the clinical manifestations of low back pain (LBP).Subjects and methods. A multicenter open-label observational prospective study was conducted in 22 cities of Russia (46 centers) to investigate the efficacy of a combination of CS and GA in the outpatient treatment of nonspecific LBP. A total of 9761 patients were enrolled in the study that was completed by 8546 patients. Therapeutic efficiency was evaluated from changes in pain intensity during movement and at rest, by using the visual analogue scale. The Oswestry disability index, an global physician and patient assessment of therapeutic efficiency, and a daily need for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were taken into account as additional criteria for efficiency evaluation.Results and discussion. The multicenter open-label observational study established the efficacy of a combination of CS and GA in treating nonspecific LBP: relief in pain during movement and at rest, functional improvement, and a reduction in the daily need for NSAIDs. The patients and physicians highly assessed therapeutic efficiency. The combination of CS and GA was also noted to be well tolerated. The findings may suggest that this combination may be a promising tool to treat LBP and gives proof to the expediency of its use in randomized placebo-controlled studies.

Keywords

• low back pain
• symptomatic slow-acting drugs