The Effectiveness of a Home Exercise Program for a Young Athlete with Schmorl’s Nodes: A Case Report
Journal Title: Global Journal of Medical and Clinical Case Reports - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Adolescent soccer players are often prone to low back pain and one source of low back pain incurred by adolescents is Schmorl’s nodes, or end-plate disc herniations. Patients with low back pain due to Schmorl’s nodes are often given home exercise programs to manage their symptoms and increase their core stability. The purpose of this case report is to describe the treatment and outcome for a young athlete with Schmorl’s nodes causing low back pain and lower extremity weakness. Case Description: A 12 year-old female soccer player with a history of low back pain was referred to physical therapy with a diagnosis of Schmorl’s nodes. Following 8 weeks of physical therapy, the patient was then discharged to a home exercise program. The patient underwent a 6-week home exercise program involving core strengthening exercises designed to decrease her low back pain and help her return to playing soccer with one-hundred percent effort. Outcomes: The patient completed her 7-week home exercise program. Following intervention, the patient demonstrated improvements in lower extremity and core strength as well as improvements in athletic performance. The intervention did not result in significant changes in the patient’s low back pain. Discussion: Home exercise programs are effective in the management of low back pain in young athletes. However, the effectiveness of a home exercise program for adolescent athletes with Schmorl’s nodes is not well established. The home exercise program in this case was effective in increasing the patient’s strength, but not at decreasing the patient’s pain. More research is needed to determine the best physical therapy treatment and optimal home exercise program for adolescents with Schmorl’s nodes.
Authors and Affiliations
Amy J. Swain, Christian C. Evans
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP238512
- DOI 10.17352/2455-5282.000004
- Views 91
- Downloads 0
Middle Aortic Syndrome: A Case Report and Review of the Literature
Coarctation of the aorta is a relatively common defect that accounts for 5-8% of all congenital heart defects and is characterized by discrete medial thickening with superimposed neointimal tissue, leading to aortic lume...
Isolated Rupture of the Superior Rectus Muscle following Blunt Trauma – A Case Report
We report the rare case of a left isolated superior rectus muscle (SRM) rupture due to a bizarre mechanism of injury, where a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive entered the orbit during a motor vehicle accident leadi...
Bicuspid Aortic Valve, Bovine Aortic Arch and early Atherosclerosis: When one plus one equals three
Despite that even normally functioning bicuspid aortic valves can have abnormal transvalvular-flow patterns, resulting in regional increases in wall shear stress and aortic dilatation, most often are preserved during asc...
Simultaneous Traumatic Avulsion of Flexor Digitorum Superficialis and Flexor Digitorum Profundus Tendons in Left Little Finger
Avulsion injuries of the flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) tendon are common and widely reported [1-3]. Closed traumatic avulsion of the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) tendon is, however, rare, with few reported ser...
The Heart That Wasn’t Attacked: A Case of Transverse Myelitis
Transverse myelitis is an autoimmune demyelination disease of the spinal cord that can present with a myriad of symptoms ranging from altered sensations, weakness, loss of bowel control and so forth. There are approxima...