Background and purpose: The subjects with lumbar instability have problems of notably decreased muscle strength and endurance of back extensor muscles and posture stability, compared to healthy subjects. Kinesio taping is being applied as an instant solution to these problems. Taping is effective for increasing proprioceptive sense, restricting over-activity of muscles due to muscle tension, stimulating underactive synergic muscles, correcting joints alignment, unloading irritable neuromuscular tissue, and reducing pain. The purpose of this study is to investigate the instant effect of Kinesio taping on pain decrease and improvement of functional disorder of the subjects who have lumbar instability.
Methods: A total of 20 patients (13 men and 7 women) who have lumbar instability were chosen as the subjects. The experiment was conducted by assigning the subjects into Kinesio taping group and placebo taping group. A visual analog scale was used to measure back pain and Biering-sorensen test was applied to measure the muscle endurance of back extensor muscles. A digital dynamometer was used to test the isomeric contraction strength of lumbar extensor muscle. The subject performed single-leg stance and double-leg stance task and their static balancing ability was measured by a testing device that captures the static balancing ability.

Results: In a within-group comparison, Kinesio taping group showed a significant decrease of visual analog scale (p＜.01) and a significant increase of endurance and strength of lumbar extensor muscle (p＜.01). In Kinesio taping group, the shift distance in anterior-posterior sway and medial-lateral sway during the double-leg stance significantly decrease (p＜.05). The shift distance in anterior-posterior sway and medial-lateral sway also significantly decreased during the single-leg stance (p＜.05). Placebo taping group showed a significant decrease of visual analog scale (p＜.01) In a between-group comparison, Kinesio taping group showed a significantly larger decrease of visual analog scale (p＜.01), significant larger increase of muscle endurance and muscle strength (p＜.01), and significant larger decrease of anterior-posterior sway in the double-leg stance (p＜.01), compared to placebo taping group.

Conclusion: Application of Kinesio taping to the subjects with lumbar instability produced positive effect of reducing pain, increasing muscle strength and endurance, and improving static balancing ability. Further studies will be required that can investigate the long-term effect of an application of taping combined with diverse exercise programs using the subjects consisting of the patients with chronic lumbar instability