Whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) was found to be at least as effective as a multimodal therapy, which is frequently mentioned to as being the golden standard in nonspecific chronic back pain, a prospective clinical intervention study in ‘PloS One’ concluded.

Exercise is one crucial part of NSCBP treatment, as per the prevailing guidelines. WB-EMS is a safe and time-effective training technique that may be beneficial for NSCBP-patients.

This study is based on a comparison of 2 therapeutic approaches. One group i.e. EMS group (85 patients) received 20 minutes WB-EMS in 7 days. The active control group or ACG group was subjected to a multimodal therapy program (43 patients). Thirty-four individuals without back pain were included in the third group or passive control group. The average age of the study participants was 58.6 years (18 to 86 years).

The NRS, Numeric Rating Scale; ODI, Oswestry Disability Index; NASS, North American Spine Society Instrument; SF 36 survey and calculations for muscular function and postural stability were used in all the groups. In the EMS-group: T0, T1, T3 and T4 were at baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks and 24 weeks, respectively. In the ACG group: T0 and T1 were at baseline and following 4 weeks.

The NRS (1-10) improved statistically and was clinically significantly by 2 points as witnessed from the EMS group (Figure 1).

Figure 1: NRS-11 with maximum relative improvement in WB-EMS group

The ODI decreased by 19.7 points (Figure 2). 

Figure 2: ODI-Score with maximum relative improvement in WB-EMS group

A significant improvement was observed in the NASS and most of the SF 36 items. Only the muscular function improved to some extent in the multimodal treatment group.