Tag: Evidence Based Practice
Some More Great Questions to Ask Your Patients
As a follow up to my last post I thought I might suggest another couple of questions that are worth asking your patients. Once again, these are not questions that I have devised myself, but rather have been suggested by me to other clinicians. I find them exceptionally useful in my clinical practice. 1. Do […]
“Over-Imaging” the Lower Back
Not a very imaginative title I know! But hopefully my final post on Imaging for a little while. Apologies if it has become a of focus on this blog recently, but I think it is a critical issue in musculoskeletal medicine. I have outlined in previous posts that my interpretation of the research (systematic reviews) on […]
Imaging Findings In Asymptomatic Lumbar Spines – Research Update – January 2015
The plan this year is to shorten my posts, and post more regularly. Here we go……wish me luck! Imaging findings in asymptomatic lumbar spines and other areas of the body, are recurring theme on this site. Mainly because of the experiences I have routinely had where patients are managed purely based on their imaging findings. Here […]
Is Lifting Technique Important?
A common theme I continue to encounter in clinical practice is the belief from patients, and health care providers, that correct lifting technique i.e. maintaining a lumbar lordosis, is critical in the prevention and rehabilitation of back injuries. I can recall this belief being around for as long as I have been practicing and studying […]
The Role of Manual Therapy
Now the most obvious key role of manual therapy is that it provides pain relief in some patients (for those interested in the research relating to the mechanisms of manual therapy this topic please see this previous post and this recent systematic review by Voogt et al (2014)). Pain reduction in patients is great, but there […]
The Core Stability Problem
When I refer to “Core Stability” I mean teaching patients isolated contractions of transverses abdominus and multifidus. This is then usually progressed (depending on the practitioner) to having the patient contracting these muscle in functional movement patterns. The end aim being reduction of pain and improvement in function. From my perspective the “core stability” direction started following […]
In Pursuit of Pathology
I have recently attended a couple of seminars that have mentioned how newer and better MRI units will begin to be used in the attempt to identify pathology in patients with musculoskeletal pain. Now this sounds a fantastic and a worthwhile cause, especially if it enables us to identify symptomatic pathology in a patient population […]
Red Flags for Low Back Pain- Research Update – July 2014
Sorry for the delay in posts. I was pleased to recently be asked by the Western Australian branch of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Australia (MPA) to present a day of lecturing on their annual “Spinal 1” course, and an evening seminar on “Red Flags for Low Back Pain”. Hence my last couple of months have been taken […]
Fear and Fear Avoidance – Research Update -May 2014
I though it about time to provide an update regarding some recent articles/publications relating to the topic of Fear and Fear Avoidance. As seen in an earlier post, Fear is an important psychosocial factor that we need to be aware of when assessing and treating patients. The new research continues to provide support for this. Wertli […]
Cold Hyperalgesia Testing
I have often read in the literature the view that Cold Hyperalgesia is suggestive of more “severe” pain states and hence poorer prognosis. For example: Van Oosterwijck et al (2013) reported in their Systematic literature review on the evidence for central sensitisation in chronic whiplash that: The outcome of the processes involved in central sensitization […]
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