The diagnostic utility of McKenzie clinical assessment for lower back pain

Donelson et al 1 Donelson R Aprill C Medcalf R Grant W. A prospective study of centralization of lumbar and referred pain. A predictor of symptomatic discs and anular competence. Spine. 1997; 22: 1115-1122 Crossref PubMed Scopus (212) Google Scholar compared McKenzie assessment with discography and diagnostic imaging (magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography) in the detection of discogenic lower back pain and annular incompetence. They concluded that in a chronic, out-of-work, worker's compensation-litigation patient population, McKenzie assessment reliably differentiated discogenic and nondiscogenic pain. They further concluded that this noninvasive, low-tech, relatively inexpensive clinical assessment with repeated end-range lumbar test movements provided more relevant information than noninvasive imaging studies.