Standardized measurement of lateral spinal flexion and its use in evaluation of the effect of treatment of chronic low back pain.

To evaluate the effect of treatment of chronic low back pain, the report of subjective pain needs to be supplemented by objective information such as, for example on changes in the functional capacity of the spine. This paper presents a simple but reliable method in this respect i.e. by measuring the range of lateral spinal flexion. When two independent testers used the method the correlation coefficient between their recorded values was 0.98. In patients with chronic low back pain, the method showed that the range of lateral flexion increased after treatment. At linear regression analysis a significant correlation was found between increased range of motion and reduced pain.