Effects of virtual reality exercises and routine physical therapy on pain intensity and functional disability in patients with chronic low back pain

Objective: To compare the effects of Virtual Reality exercises and routine physical therapy on pain and functional disability in patients with chronic low-back pain. Methods: The single-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted from April to October 2020 at the Physiotherapy Department of the Government Services Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, and comprised patients of either gender, aged 25-50 years with chronic non-radiating low-back pain who were randomised into two equal groups. Group A received routine physical therapy, while group B received Virtual Reality exercises with routine physical therapy. Visual Analogue Scale and Modified Oswestry Disability Index were used to measure outcomes at baseline and after 4th, 8th and 12th sessions. Data was analysed using SPSS 24. Results: Of the 84 patients, there were 42(50%) in each of the two groups.There were 28((33%) males and 56(66.6%) females. The mean age in group A was 37.5 +/- 12.5 years and in group B it was 38.2 +/- 11.8 years. Pain score at baseline was 6.62 +/- 1.04 in group A and 6.50 +/- 1.24 in group B which decreased to 3.32 +/- 0.81 and 1.00 +/- 0.60 respectively after the 12th session (p<0.05). Functional disability score at baseline was 65.08+8.94 in group A and 69.16 +/- 9.13 in Group B which decreased to 40.56 +/- 8.59 and 16.04 +/- 6.82 respectively after the 12th session (p<0.05). Group B showed significantly better results than group A (p<0.05). Conclusion: Virtual Reality exercises in combination with routine physical therapy had dominant effect on functional disability and low-back