Effect of 10%, 30%, and 60% Body Weight Traction on the Straight Leg Raise Test of Symptomatic Patients With Low Back Pain

Thomas F. Meszaros, Kornelia Kulig, Douglas Creighton, Edward Czarnecki

Study Design: Single group test-retest repeated measures. Objectives: To determine the effects of lumbar traction with 3 different amounts 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 pain or radicular symptoms with a positive unilateral SLR test below 45° participated in this study. The pain-free mobility of the lower extremity 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 compared to pretraction and 10% of body weight traction. The mean (SD) SLR measurements were pretraction (24.1° ± 13.0), 10% of body weight traction (27.4° ± 14.5), 30% of body weight traction (34.0° ± 14.3), 60% of body weight traction (36.5° ± 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 test. Both 30% and 60% of body weight tractions were shown to be effective for increasing motion beyond pretraction levels.

J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2000;30(10):595-601.

Key Words: disc pathology, lumbar traction, straight leg raise

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