Abstract

Introduction: Low back pain is a common symptom among working age population. Farming is the major occupation in many developing countries. Most of the farmers lack ergonomic knowledge which predisposes them into musculoskeletal disorders, majorly low back pain. Women farmers who learnt to live with pain are at higher risk.

Case Description: A 38 yr old female farm worker with chronic intermittent low back pain for past 2 years, had undergone physiotherapy treatment and medications repeatedly for the same. And with the recent recurrence of pain, she visited the Orthopaedic outpatient department and she was advised for physiotherapy. Her functional activities were disturbed.

Procedure: A lesser explored technique of Dorn therapy was adopted to relieve pain and restore mobility of lumbar spine.

Result: Prior to the treatment, scores of NRS for forward flexion was 8/10and for floor sitting was 9/10, the scores of Pressure Pain Threshold at L4 spinous process was 4 lbs and at L5 spinous process was 6 lbs and the measurement for finger to floor test was 35cm. After the application of Dorn therapy, scores of NRS for forward flexion was 3/10 and for floor sitting was 5/10, the scores of Pressure Pain Threshold at L4 spinous process was 7 lbs, and at L5 spinous process was 8 lbs and the measurement for finger to floor test was 23cm.

Purpose: This study describes the immediate effectiveness of Dorn therapy in a farmer with chronic low back pain and will help understand the clinical importance of the less spoken Dorn therapy. And this report will emphasize on the application of this therapy in clinical settings to achieve immediate results.

Limitations and Recommendations: Since this a case study, the results cannot be generalised in a larger sample size. Further research is needed to explore selection of Dorn therapy and its effectiveness could be studied in long term to provide a better understanding of the treatment parameters.

Keywords: Chronic Low Back Pain, Manual therapy, Dorn therapy, Farmers.