 Introduction: Low back pain is one of the most common complaints in doctors offices, and acute low back pain is characterized by episodes of pain with less than three weeks duration. The transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation TENS, based on the gate control theory of pain proposed by Melzack and Wall in 1965, has been used as an adjunctive therapy in the control of back pain, being a non-invasive, low cost, safe and easy to apply. No studies were found regarding the effectiveness of TENS in acute low back pain. 