Effects of musculoskeletal rehabilitation in patients with lumbosacral transitional vertebra: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction

The lumbosacral transition vertebra (LSTV) is a common anatomical variation of the spine, presenting changes in the structure or position of the lower lumbar and/or upper sacral vertebrae.

Objective

To systematically map the existing evidence on the evaluation and physical therapy treatment of the lumbosacral transition vertebra.

Methods

The systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines and used the protocol registered in PROSPERO (CRD42024530434). Using the PICO strategy, the research sought evidence on musculoskeletal rehabilitation in patients with lumbosacral transition vertebra, covering databases such as PubMed, Lilacs, SciELO, Scopus, Web of Science, PEDro and Google Scholar. The inclusion criteria were primary/original, complete articles, freely available and with no restriction of year of publication, as long as they were related to the evaluation and physical therapy treatment of the lumbosacral transition vertebra. Meanwhile, the exclusion criteria were articles published in annals of scientific events, articles published in journals without peer review, and articles unavailable at the time of full reading.

Results and discussion

1315 articles were initially identified during the search carried out between March and July 2024. After the analysis of duplicates, 1219 articles remained, whose titles and abstracts were evaluated. Of these, 8 articles were considered eligible for full reading. To expand the sample, the reference lists of these articles were examined, resulting in the inclusion of 1 more article.

Conclusion

The reviewed interventions, including lumbosacral manipulation, mobilization, therapeutic exercises, and radiofrequency, showed promise in reducing pain and improving functionality in patients with LSTV-associated low back pain.