Introduction: Chronic low back pain is the most common musculoskeletal disorder in the adult population. It affects up to 85% of the world's population at least once in their lifetime and represents a major public health challenge. In terms of duration, it is defined as pain lasting at least 12 weeks. Treatment includes various physiotherapy approaches, but recently there has been a surge in popularity of capacitive and resistive energy transfer therapy – a type of thermotherapy – which has been in use for many years but under a different name and in a different way. This therapy uses radiofrequency energy to heat deep tissues. Purpose: The purpose of thesis was to determine the effects of capacitive and resistive energy transfer therapy on chronic low back pain. Methods: The descriptive research method was used. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed database. Results: Six clinical studies involving a total of 210 participants were analysed in a literature review. Most studies used a visual analogue scale as the pain measurement tool, and one study used pressure algometry. All studies demonstrated statistically significant improvement immediately after the intervention. Three studies also measured the long-term effects of the therapy, but only one showed a statistically significant reduction in pain compared to the control group, while the other two showed insufficient improvement. It was also found that the order of application of the capacitive and resistive modalities did not affect the outcome of the therapy. Discussion and conclusion: Capacitive and resistive energy transfer therapy proved to be effective in terms of short-term pain reduction immediately after therapy. Based on the results of the studies, it cannot be said that the therapy has long-term effects. Better quality research is needed to investigate the long-term effects of the therapy.
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