Table 2
The use of maintenance care in patients with no previous history of low back pain and different outcomes of treatment.
| "Would you consider recommending MC to this patient?" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Perhaps | Yes | Missing | |
| Follow-up scenarios | Frequency (%) | Frequency (%) | Frequency (%) | Frequency (%) |
| You treat him once and the symptoms disappear directly after you manipulated the painful area. You follow for him two months and the pain does not reappear, the movement pattern is normal, and you cannot provoke any symptoms by palpation or other tests. |
264
(89%) | 16 (5%) | 12 (4%) | 4 (1%) |
| You treat him once and the symptoms disappear directly after you manipulated the painful area. You follow him for two months and after one month there is a recurrence. But after one more treatment the pain does not reappear, the movement pattern is normal, and you cannot provoke any symptoms by palpation or other tests. |
169
(57%) | 82 (28%) | 39 (13%) | 6 (2%) |
| You treat him for two months and you can see from his file that some days are good some are bad, but in all there is no difference really. | 132 (45%) | 92 (31%) | 67 (23%) | 5 (2%) |
| You treat him for 2 months and he is getting gradually worse. |
260
(88%) | 18 (6%) | 13 (4%) | 5 (2%) |
The following basic case was given:"A 40-year old man consults you for low back pain of 2 days duration with no additional spinal or musculoskeletal problems, and with no other health problems. His x-rays are normal for his age. There are no red flags and he seems to in good shape both psychically and psychologically. There are no aggravating factors at work or at home." The expected answers are written in bold, and where the majority of the practitioners agree with the research team, the answer is also in italics.
The use of maintenance care based on patients with a history of one episode of LBP per month the last 5 years lasting 5-6 days resolving spontaneously and different outcomes.