A Study on Effectiveness of Artificial-Intelligence Assisted Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) Dosage and Physiotherapist-Planned ESWT Dosage on Patients with Low Back Pain-An Experimental Study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of AI planned ESWT dosage compared to physiotherapist dosage in terms of reducing pain, minimizing disability experienced and improving health-related quality of life for chronic low back pain patients. Methodology: The ethical clearance was obtained from AUHEC (AUHEC/MPT-FT-002/17/02/2025). 52 participants with chronic low back pain were included in the study. The control group received the ESWT dosage planned by the physiotherapist while the intervention group received the ESWT dosage planned by ChatGPT. The participants received the ESWT dosage 3 times a week for 4 weeks.  Results: Both groups did show significant improvement (p<0.05) VAS, ODI, and QoL after receiving the ESWT treatment. However, there is no significant difference (p>0.05) in comparison within the improvement of VAS, ODI and QoL after receiving the ESWT dosage. Conclusion: AI was not inferior to physiotherapist in ESWT dosage planning; ESWT was beneficial for low back pain patients