Abstract
Objective: The randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the effectiveness of Spinal manual Therapy (SMT) with general spinal exercises (GSE) in patients with non specific Acute Low Back Pain.
Methodology: A sample of 60 patients was taken from September 2011 to January 2012 and they were randomly placed either in control or experimental group, 30 patients in each group. The progress of all the patients was measured on a unified scale describing 5 disability variables, pain intensity, walking, standing, sleeping and social activity according to modified Oswestry Scale. All the subjects of experimental group received spinal manual therapy sessions 2 to 3 times per week and general spinal exercises whereas all the participants of controlled group performed only general spinal exercises for four weeks under supervision. By adding up the total of 5 variables, a total pre-exercise and post exercise score were obtained.
Results: This total disability score of the two groups was analyzed statistically and t- test of independent samples was applied with p = 0.0001 which was lower than 0.05 hence result was statistically significant. The total disability score in experimental group before the clinical trial was 558 and after end of clinical trial came out to be 244 that show a lower value hence their functional abilities are enhanced and improved. On the other hand total disability score of the control group before the clinical trial was 416 and after the clinical trialis388 that is more than that of experimental group showing that their functional abilities are less improved as compared to experimental group
Conclusions: Hence patients who received SMT protocols improved significantly better with lower disability scores compared with patients who had GSE protocols.

Key words: Spinal Manual Therapy, General Spinal Exercises, Acute low back pain