Setting Outpatient physiotherapy department in university (Cesumar)~Participants A hundred and fifty patients with non specific chronic low back pain with or without radicular pain.~Interventions The patients were randomly divided into three groups: 1) TENS; 2) IFC; e 3) Control. Ten sessions of electrotherapy for groups 1 and 2, while the patients of the Control group stayed without any treatment in the same period~Main Outcome Measures Intensity of the pain through the Visual Analogue Scale and McGill Pain Questionnaire; specific functional disability by Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire; Analgesic period (hours); and the medication consumption~Statistic Analysis All data were analyzed using Statistica version 7 and SAS version 9.1. Baseline characteristics were compared using the Shapiro-Wilks test for continuous variables and then analysis of variance for measuring independent data. The characteristics of the patients who finished the treatment were compared with those of the lost patients, using one-way ANOVA and the Kruskal-Wallis test.
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of the TENS and IFC in patients with non specific chronic low back pain.