• Juraj Artner, Stephan Kurz, Balkan Cakir, Heiko Reichel, and Friederike Lattig.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Ulm, RKU, Germany.
• J Pain Res. 2012 Jan 1; 5: 209-16.

BackgroundChronic back pain is relatively resistant to unimodal therapy regimes. The aim of this study was to introduce and evaluate the short-term outcome of a three-week intensive multidisciplinary outpatient program for patients with back pain and sciatica, measured according to decrease of functional impairment and pain.MethodsThe program was designed for patients suffering from chronic back pain to provide intensive interdisciplinary therapy in an outpatient setting, consisting of interventional injection techniques, medication, exercise therapy, back education, ergotherapy, traction, massage therapy, medical training, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, aquatraining, and relaxation.ResultsBased on Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) scores, a significant improvement in pain intensity and functionality of 66.83% NRS and an ODI of 33.33% were achieved by our pain program within 3 weeks.ConclusionThis paper describes the organization and short-term outcome of an intensive multidisciplinary program for chronic back pain on an outpatient basis provided by our orthopedic department, with clinically significant results.

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