The effectiveness of McKenzie Method in diagnosis and treatment of low back pain – a literature review

Introduction
As many as 80% of adults suffer from low back pain. Therefore, it is significant to develop an effective and reliable method of diagnosing and treating low back pain. One of the rehabilitation methods is a mechanical diagnosis and therapy method developed by Robin McKenzie. The aim of the study was to review the publications assessing the effectiveness of McKenzie Method in diagnosis and therapy of low back pain and to compare it with other widely applied physiotherapeutic methods.

Material and methods
The analysis included 50 articles from the last 20 years dealing with the issue of diagnosis and therapy of low back pain with the use of McKenzie Method. After the application of inclusion criteria, 22 publications were taken into account in the final analysis. The following databases were used: Google Scholar, PubMed, the Library of the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education and the Main Medical Library.

Results
The research revealed high effectiveness of McKenzie Method in diagnosing pain depending on the level of qualifications of therapists applying this method. It was concluded that McKenzie Method is an effective solution in low back pain therapy as it produced better results than standard rehabilitation and similar results to other therapeutic methods.

Conclusions
A complete training regarding this method is significant for achieving high effectiveness of diagnosis. The combination of McKenzie Method with other forms of therapy gave the best results in improving spinal mobility and general quality of life as well as reducing the level of disability.