Range of lumbar flexion in chronic low back pain.

Thirty low back pain (LBP) patients, and thirty normal controls without any back pain or disease were the subjects for this study. Lumbar flexion was measured using the skin-marking method, a MacRae and Wright's modification of Schober's method. The mean lumbar flexion for the LBP patients (5.25 +/- 2.12 cm) was significantly lower (P 0.05) than that for normal subjects (6.96 +/- 2.0 cm). The normal males had higher value of lumbar flexion than the females. There is also the tendency for lumbar flexion to decrease with advancing age. Measurement of lumbar flexion using skin-marking technique is therefore an objective method of monitoring patients with low back pain.