Samenvatting

STUDY DESIGN:
A systematic review

BACKGROUND:
The Norwegian Sling Exercise Therapy (S-E-T) concept, is a treatment system that was developed in 1999. Being such a new concept, there is yet scarce evidence based research existing on the treatment effect. The S-E-T concept consists of different treatment principles. The authors would focus on what seemed to be the two main treatment principles: sensorimotor and stability training, and search for studies finding the effect of these interventions. The information gathered from the collected studies could then hopefully be used to support the concept.

OBJECTIVE:
A report dealing with evidence supporting the effect of applying two of the principles of the S-E-T concept for patients with chronic low back pain.

METHOD:
Systematic steps to follow in the method were drawn from the Cochrane Reviewer's Handbook. All relevant studies meeting the inclusion criteria were identified by a computer-aided search of the Medline, PEDro, Doconline, Fysio and Ryggnett. Because of limited studies found with the original in- and exclusion criteria, a decision was made to include another three articles that described other types of participants. 7 studies underwent a quality assessment using the PEDro scale for including and excluding studies. A data extraction form containing the relevant information from the articles was then made. A bias assessment was conducted in order to evaluate how much emphasis each of the included studies should have in the review. As the studies were heterogeneous with regard to study populations, interventions and outcomes it was decided not to draw a meta-analysis, but merely summarise the results in order to draw a conclusion.

RESULTS:
In this review, seven studies were identified. There is evidence that stability training can give good results when applied to patients with chronic low pain patients taking pain, functional disability, and muscle mass into consideration. The static holding component has shown to be important in the stability training of the low back pain. Sufficient evidence on the sensorimotor training was not found.

CONCLUSION:
The evidence summarised in this systematic review indicates that the principle of stability training is effective for the treatment of patients with chronic low back pain compared to other conservative treatments. However, none of the studies included in the review was assessing the effect of stability and with the use of the S-E-T concept, and none of the studies even measured the effect of this training with the use of slings. Thus, this review supports stability training, and knowing that this training is one of the main principles of the S-E-T concept, the authors of this review have the opinion that it can support the concept to a certain degree. Sufficient evidence is not found to support the principle of sensorimotor training.