Tratamento conservador não medicamentoso da dor lombar em idosos: uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Introduction: Although aging is not necessarily related to diseases and disabilities, the elderly are susceptible to the physiological mechanisms that alter their physical capacity, and are with the increasing of age, strong candidates of low back pain (LBP). There is a great variability in the prevalence of LBP in the elderly population (13 to 49%). The origin of the sample, the study design, definitions of lumbar pain, comorbidities and interpreting patients' reports have contributed to the variability in the reports of LBP. Conservative drug-free treatment is important in managing LBP in the elderly because they are more susceptible to drug side effects and have a high number of comorbidities, which increase the risk of death in surgical interventions. Objective: Discuss the possibilities of conservative treatment, non-medicated, effective in the treatment of low back pain in the elderly. Methods: A literature review in the databases, PubMed, Lilacs and Scielo Peter, was performed, with the following key words: chronic pain, low back pain and elderly. The inclusion criteria used for the results of this study were subjects related to low back pain in elderly patients reported in clinical trials. Conclusion: Despite the magnitude of social and economic impact on the low back pain in the elderly, there are only few clinical trials on this subject. Auricolotherapy, mindfulness meditation, manual therapy, acupuncture in trigger points and percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation interventions are described in clinical trials for the treatment of lumbar pain in the elderly. Despite the large number of clinical trials on therapeutic exercise and the locus of pain control as a treatment for lumbar pain in adults, few studies on these subjects are in the elderly.