Embedded emergency department physical therapy versus usual care for acute low back pain: a protocol for the NEED-PT randomised trial.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Low back pain is a common problem and a substantial source of morbidity and disability worldwide. Patients frequently visit the emergency department (ED) for low back pain, but many experience persistent symptoms at 3 months despite frequent receipt of opioids. Although physical therapy interventions have been demonstrated to improve patient functioning in the outpatient setting, no randomised trial has yet to evaluate physical therapy in the ED setting.

Methods and analysis

This is a single-centre cluster-randomised trial of an embedded ED physical therapy intervention for acute low back pain. We used a covariate-constrained approach to randomise individual physicians (clusters) at an urban academic ED in Chicago, Illinois, USA, to receive, or not receive, an e

SUBMITTER: Kim HS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9131058 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature