Management of non-specific thoracic spine pain: a cross-sectional study among physiotherapists

BACKGROUND: The thoracic area has mainly been neglected in research compared to the lumbar and cervical regions. No clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for non-specific thoracic spine pain (TSP) have been compiled. Therefore, it can be argued that the absence of specific CPGs raises questions about the management of non-specific TSP. Hence, this study aimed at determining the management of non-specific TSP among physiotherapists in Italy. METHODS: A web cross-sectional survey investigating physiotherapists’ management of non-specific TSP was conducted. The survey instrument was divided into three sections. The first section obtained participants’ characteristics. The second section determined participants’ agreement with 29 statements regarding the clinical management of non-specific TSP utilising a five-point Likert scale. Participants who partially or completely agreed (scores 4–5) were considered to agree with the statements. A ≥ 70% of agreement with a statement was considered as consensus according to previous literature. The third section asked the participants to indicate how often they adopted several treatments to manage non-specific TSP with a 5-point scale (always – often – sometimes – rarely - never). The frequencies of answers were calculated, and a visual representation through a bar chart was reported. The online version of the survey instrument was delivered through the newsletter of the Italian Association of Physiotherapists and the postgraduate master’s degree in Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation of the University of Genova (Genova, Italy). RESULTS: In total, 424 physiotherapists (mean age (SD): 35.1 years (10.5); 50% women) completed the survey. In the second section, physiotherapists achieved consensus for 22/29 statements. Those statements addressed the importance of psychosocial factors, exercise, education, and manual therapy techniques in managing non-specific TSP. In the third section, 79.7% of participants indicated they would always adopt a multimodal treatment (education, therapeutic exercise, manual therapy), followed by education and information (72.9%), therapeutic exercise (62.0%), soft tissue manual therapy (27.1%), and manual therapy (16.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Study participants considered fundamentally using a multimodal programme based on education, exercise and manual therapy to manage non-specific TSP. This approach aligns with the CPGs for other chronic musculoskeletal pain than non-specific TSP. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12891-023-06505-8.