Effectiveness of non-surgical treatment combined with supervised exercise for lumbar spinal stenosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

The benefits of combining supervised exercise in the non-surgical treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the effectiveness of non-surgical treatments with and without supervised exercise for pain intensity, symptom severity, functional impairment/disability, walking distance, and quality of life (QOL) in LSS patients.

METHODS

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating combinations of supervised exercises were searched using four electronic databases up to August 13, 2020. Meta-analysis was conducted for immediate and long-term results.

RESULTS

Three studies were identified, including 244 participants. Immediate-term results showed that leg pain intensity (mean distance [MD]: -0.94, 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]: -1.60 to -0.29, p< 0.01) and symptom severity (MD: -0.29, 95% CI: -0.50 to -0.08, p< 0.01) were lower in the study group than in the control group, and walking distance (MD: 415.83, 95% CI: 298.15 to 533.50, p< 0.001) and QOL were higher in the study group. Long-term results showed that functional disability/impairment (MD: -0.27, 95% CI: -0.49 to -0.04, p< 0.05) was lower in the study group than in the control group, and walking distance and QOL were higher in the study group.

CONCLUSION

The number of studies on this topic was small and limited. Combinations of non-surgical treatment and supervised exercise may not provide significant benefits.