Test instrument for predicting the effect of rigid braces in cases with low back pain.

The difficulty of predicting the acceptance and the result of wearing rigid braces has been identified before and is reported in the literature. Therefore a test instrument has been developed and tested. The intention is that the test instrument can imitate a rigid brace. Furthermore, different attributes of the rigid brace can be altered. Thus the range of the lordosis, the level of maximal dorsal support and the amount of abdominal support can be altered. By changing these parameters the maximal pain relief is sought. A good correlation between the result in the test instrument and the rigid brace manufactured according to the information from the former was seen (93%). No false negative results were seen. Thus, if no acceptance or pain relief was seen in the test instrument no pain relief could be expected in a rigid brace. Another purpose of this test instrument is to simplify the manufacture of the brace and to transfer easily the information gained from the test instrument to the brace with the aid of a so called measuring device.