The aim of this study was to investigate the short-term effect on spinal mobility, pain perception, neural mechanosensitivity, and full height recovery after high-velocity low-amplitude (HVLA) spinal manipulation (SM) in the lumbosacral joint (L5-S1) A randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial with evaluations at baseline and after intervention was used. Forty male subjects (N=40) (mean age± SD; 38 ± 9.14 years) diagnosed with degenerative lumbar disease at L5-S1 were randomly separated into two groups: the treatment group (TG) (n = 20) (39 ± 9.12 years) and control group (CG) (n = 20) (37 ± 9.31 years). All participants completed the intervention and follow-up evaluations. A single L5-S1 SM technique (pull-move) was performed in the TG, whereas the CG received a single placebo intervention. Measures included assessing the subject’s height using a stadiometer. The secondary outcome measures included perceived low back pain, evaluated using a visual analogue scale; neural mechanosensitivity, as assessed using the passive straight leg raise test (SLR); and amount of spinal mobility in flexion, as measured using the finger to floor distance test (FFD). The intra-group comparison suggested a significant improvement in all variables in the TG (p<.001). There were no changes in the CG, except for the FFD (p=.008). In the between-group comparison of the mean differences from pre- to post-intervention, there was statistical significance for all cases (p<.001)
The study found that an HVLA SM in the lumbosacral joint administered to male subjects with degenerative disc disease immediately improves self-perceived pain, spinal mobility in flexion, hip flexion during the passive SLR, and subject's full height. Future studies should include female subjects and should investigate the long-term results.