In addition to the Henschke et al article that I referred to in the last post, I also thought it important to review potential Masqueraders of Spinal Pain. I reviewed an article by Klineberg et al (2007) that provides examples of medical causes (Masqueraders) of back pain. Something I think as primary contact practitioners we should be […]
I reviewed a recent article by Henschke et al (2009) in relation to Red Flags titled: Prevalence of and Screening for Serious Spinal Pathology in Patients Presenting to Primary Care Settings With Acute Low Back Pain The purpose of this study being to determine prevalence of serious pathology in patients presenting with acute lower back pain […]
Cervicogenic Headache (CGH) is a common clinical occurrence. The first challenge being to identify if the patient is suffering from CGH as either the primary problem or as a component of a mixture of headache types. This is not always easy as purely basing it on subjective findings can be difficult. Assessment of Headaches From […]
In my clinical experience it would appear that patients presenting with dizziness is not uncommon. Is there a protocol for assessment of dizziness? I am certainly not an expert on dizziness, but I think the following information is a key minimum to know when assessing a dizzy patient. From a physiotherapy perspective I think the […]
What does Manual Therapy (MT) do? By MT I mean what do our passive joint mobilisation techniques do? The following summarises some interesting research regarding the Mechanisms of Manual Therapy. Schmid et al (2008) Conducted a systematic review of the literature in relation to the effects of MT. They concluded that: MT may help with […]
Recently I have been reviewing the literature in relation to co-morbidities in chronic pain. The following list is taken from review of Ramond et al (2011), Von Korff et al (2005) and Coronado et al (2011). These are factors potentially related to poor prognosis and/or persistent pain states (I am sure there are more but […]
Now before we start I want to state that most of my knowledge regarding this topic has developed from attending lectures/courses/practical sessions with Dr Toby Hall (Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist). I would encourage anyone reading this post to take any opportunity that arises to attend a course of Toby’s. He is a wealth of knowledge and […]
I am sure most of us send home patients with exercises to do. Potential aims being: Improved muscle strength/endurance Improve flexibility of muscles/joints Rehabilitating tendinopathies Improved motor control Pain relief Neural tissue “mobilisation” Etc, etc, etc. But what about cardiovascular exercise? Are there benefits of cardiovascular exercise for chronic pain? Why should we be encouraging […]
I touched on the Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis in the last post. So what is the Hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) Axis and what do I think we need to know about it? The HPA Axis is: a central control and regulatory system of the organism that connects the central nervous system (CNS) with the hormonal system. This stress-responsive system […]
I think most of us ask our patients about their quality of sleep. My previous experience in relation to asking this was purely to assist in identifying: Inflammatory pain patterns (as mentioned in a previous post). Potential “Red Flag” signs. The more I read about sleep it becomes apparent to me the need to take […]
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