Physical Treatments (Jan 2014)
A comparison between the effects of two thoracolumbosacral orthoses on the kinematic variables of thoracolumbar vertebral region
Abstract
Abstract Introduction: because thoracolumbar region is highly exposed to serious impairments, the different aspects of treatment in this region have been largely evaluated.Non-operative treatment in the situations not involved in neurologic impairments, has shown satisfying results. Body jacket and Jewett orthoses are among one of the Non-operative choices of treatment which there is a gap in the literature about their ability to restricting motion in the thoracolumbar region. Although more efficient orthosis in restricting movement of different parts of vertebral column have been mentioned by orthotics text, those preferences have not been achieved by scientific studies and precise biomechanical evaluation between different motion planes. The purpose of this research is to determine the degree of differences between two orthosis and non-orthosis option in restricting thoracolumbar movements. Methods: this is a before and after interventional experimental study performed in the research center of Isfahan rehabilitation college with the benefit of motion analysis equipment. All participants including 10 male university students with average age of (23±3) who had no history of musculoskeletal impairments as well as osteoporosis performed 6 motion including flexion-extension-left lat flex-right lat flex-left rot-right rot in the 3 positions(1-with body jacket orthosis-2-with jewett orthosis-3-no orthosis)and meanwhile range of motion was recorded. Variance analysis as well as kruskall-walis analysis was performed in the confidence interval of 95%by SPSS19 software, to statistically analyzing the data. Resuls:according to this research, there are significant differences between three interventions in the movements of forward flexion-lateral flexion and rotation in the thoracolumbar region(p=0/000).However, when it comes to sagittal plane movements in the upper thoracic region there is no difference between two orthoses and no orthosis option(p=0/124) Conclusion: according to the results of this study, body jacket orthosis plays an important role in restricting motions of thoracolumbar region in the frontal plane (lateral flexion), although, jewett orthosis is more efficient to control transverse plane movements (rotation) than body jacket .two orthoses have similarly shown more effectiveness in controlling sagittal plane movements in the thoracolumbar region in comparison with non -orthosis situation.
