Effect of 10%, 30%, and 60% body weight traction on the straight leg raisetest of symptomatic patients with low back pain

Study Design: Single group test-retest repeated measures. Objectives: To determine the effects of lumbar traction with 3 different am ounts of force (10%, 30% and 60% body weight) on pain-free mobility of the lower extremity as measured by the straight leg raise (SLR) test. Background: There are several recommendations on how lumbar traction should be performed, but the duration, frequency force, and type of technique to be applied differ among the sources. Methods and Measures: Ten subjects with subjective complaints of low back p ain or radicular symptoms with a positive unilateral SLR test below 45 degr ees participated in this study. The pain-free mobility of the lower extremi ty in the SLR test position was measured prior to and immediately following 5 minutes of static traction in the supine position. Random assignment in the order of the amount of applied traction was implemented. Results: The straight leg raise measurements were found to be significantly greater immediately following 30% and 60% of body weight traction as compa red to pretraction and 10% of body weight traction. The mean (SD) SLR measu rements were pretraction (24.1 degrees +/- 13.0), 10% of body weight tracti on (27.4 degrees +/- 14.5), 30% of body weight traction 134.0 degrees +/- 1 4.3), 60% of body weight traction (36.5 degrees +/- 15.8). Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that traction in this group of patients improved the mobility of the lower extremity during the SLR te st. Both 30% and 60% of body weight tractions were shown to be effective fo r increasing motion beyond pretraction levels.