spine manipulation in sports

-
Spinal manipulation or manual therapy is becoming an increasingly popular method of treating athletes with spinal problems. The primary theoretic basis for the claimed beneficial results of manipulation is the restoration of motion with subsequent effect on ligamentous adhesions, muscle spasm, disk nutrition, and central nervous system endorphin systems.
The concept of joint barriers has been developed to differentiate among exercise therapy, mobilization, and manipulation. Research trials suggest that spinal manipulation is beneficial in relieving or reducing the duration of acute low back pain and acute neck pain but has much less effect on chronic low back pain and neck pain. There is evidence that manipulation increases certain parameters of motion of the spine but this evidence is not yet conclusive.
There are a wide variety of manipulative procedures that are utilized to manipulate the spine to increase range of motion, and the selection of the procedures is based on manual diagnostic skills. Manipulation, however, is not a benign procedure and has been implicated in the aggravation of disk herniation or bony fractures as well as the precipitation of vertebrobasilar artery occlusion.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 2, 2009 at 10:48 AM

    The precipitation of vertebrobasilar artery occlusion in my understanding is only associated with cervical manipulation which in PT is very rarely performed as there is low EBP behind this type of technique along with the stated inherent risk. It would be very interesting to see how much on field/sideline manips are being used for acute care of sports injuries.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Entrapment of medial calcaneal nerve (MCN)

-
Image
Peripheral nerve entrapment is a rare, but important, cause of foot and ankle pain that often is underdiagnosed and mistreated. A peripheral nerve may become entrapped anywhere along its course, but certain anatomic locations are characteristic (2). The medial calcaneal nerve (MCN) The Tibial nerve is called the planter nerve in the sole. The tibial nerve passes to the sole of the foot takes a turn on the medial side of the calcaneum is called MCN. The medial calcaneal nerve arises from tibial nerve of the inner side of the ankle, perforates the laciniate ligament, travels downwards passing below the bony projection on the inner side of the ankle, and supplies the skin over the medial aspect of the heel. Hence it is the most important nerve for heel sensations. MCN have 2 branches. The anterior branch dominate the cutaneous sensation of the anterior part of the medial calcaneal and heel weight loading field, while the posterior branch dominate the sensation of the posterior an...
Read more

Differential diagnosis of Anatomic (Radial) snuffbox pain: It is not always DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis.

-
Image
Tendon, Bone & Ligament causes: 1. DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis: Swelling of tendon of APL (Abductor pollicis longus) & extensor pollicis brevis at lateral wrist near anatomic snuff box.  The primary complaint is radial sided wrist pain that radiates up the forearm with grasping or extension of the thumb. The pain has been described as a “constant aching, burning, pulling sensation." Pain is often aggravated by repetitive lifting, gripping, or twisting motions of the hand. Swelling in the anatomical snuff box, tenderness at the radial styloid process, decreased CMC abduction ROM of the 1st digit, palpable thickening of the extensor sheaths of the 1st dorsal compartment and crepitus of the tendons moving from the extensor sheath may be found upon examination. Other possible findings include weakness and paresthesia in the hand. Finkelstein’s diagnostic test will present positive provoking the patient’s symptoms. If left untreated, the inflammation and progressive narro...
Read more

Chronic fatigue syndrome

-
Introduction: Severe fatigue is a common complaint among patients. Often, the fatigue is transient or can be attributed to a definable organic illness. Some patients present with persistent and disabling fatigue, but show no abnormalities on physical examination or screening laboratory tests. In these cases, the diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) should be considered. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, USA) Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) currently is defined as: (1) fatigue of at least 6 months' duration, seriously interfering with the patient's life; and (2) without evidence of various organic or psychiatric illnesses that can produce chronic fatigue. The World Health Organization classifies myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/cfs) as a nervous system disease. Together with other diseases under the G93 heading, ME/cfs shares a triad of abnormalities involving elevated oxidative and nitrosative stress (O&NS), activat...
Read more