Ole K. Jensen, Morten H. Andersen, René D. Østgård, Niels T. Andersen, Nanna Rolving


November 2019, Volume 28, Issue 11, pp 2478 - 2486 Original Article Read Full Article 10.1007/s00586-019-06046-6

First Online: 15 July 2019

Purpose

To investigate whether treatment by lactic acid bacteria for 100 days is associated with change of disability and pain in chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients with type 1 or mixed Modic changes (MC) during 1-year follow-up.

Methods

Eighty-nine patients with CLBP and type 1 MC or mixed MC were randomized to receive either one capsule Lactobacillus Rhamnosis GG (6 billion colony-forming unit per capsule) twice daily or placebo capsules for 100 days.

Results

Missing values at 1 year were 4% and 3% in the disability and pain variables, respectively. The predefined outcomes disability and back + leg pain only changed little during follow-up with no statistically significant differences between groups. At 1 year, back pain had on average decreased by 1.1 more on a 0–10 scale (95% confidence interval 0.20–1.97) in the group treated by lactic acid bacteria than in the control group. There were no differences regarding other predefined outcomes, i.e. global effect or percentage with minimal disability at 1 year. Nine per cent of the patients reported gastrointestinal side effects without difference between groups.

Conclusions

No differences were found regarding the predefined outcomes. Overall, there was little improvement during the 1-year observation period. A small, though hardly clinically relevant, effect on back pain was seen after treatment by Lactobacillus Rhamnosis GG, and the treatment was without side effects in comparison with the control group.

Graphic abstract

[Figure not available: see fulltext.]


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