Prof Mendelow Backswing Comparative Effectiveness Research study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Inversion therapy research registry
IRAS ID
135078
Contact name
David Mendelow
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle RVI R&D Dept.
Research summary
Backswing Comparative Effectiveness Research Study: Can inversion therapy reduce the number of sciatica patients who go on to receive surgery?
The high economic costs of backache and back surgery complications have been estimated to exceed £6 billion per annum in the UK. With sciatica, although surgery is often effective at alleviating symptoms in the short term,there is no evidence to suggest whether it is better than non-surgical therapies in the longer term. Additionally there are no gold standard treatments which improve patient wellbeing whilst they are awaiting surgery for sciatica. Practice for managing sciatica patients in the NHS is variable; whilst some patients may have opportunities to receive physiotherapy or chiropractic treatment, other patients may not receive any interim therapies (apart from pain relief).
There is a need to directly compare alternative strategies that can reduce the number of patients requiring surgery for sciatica or at least effectively reduce their discomfort while they are waiting for operations.
Inversion therapy is a low risk treatment suitable for home use which could enable more patients to avoid potentially risky spinal surgery. It aims to reduce pressure between spinal discs by means of gravity and the body’s own weight using a tilting table. The treatment increases space between the discs and relieves the pain of
sciatica.We hypothesise that patients who receive inversion therapy in addition to current manual therapies (physiotherapy/chiropractic treatment) will be less likely to need surgery for sciatica than patients who receive only standard care while waiting for surgery.
This pilot study will allow us to assess the practicality of recruiting patients into a future larger randomised trial. Ultimately if inversion therapy is proven effective surgeons will not need to perform as many operations for sciatica and in-hospital NHS costs associated with sciatica will be reduced.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0757
Date of REC Opinion
28 Oct 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion