Spinal and Pelvic Pain
Move on please….it is nearly 2017!
Last post for the year. My apologies for the low number of posts this year. 2016 has been a busy year for a number of reasons, most of them positive! To finish off I am going to deal with my “favourite” topic that continues to relate to this view that “core stability” training is an absolutely […]
“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 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 […]
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 […]
Neurological Examination for Radiculopathy
I found this recent article regarding neurological examination for radiculopathy interesting. Al Nezari et al (2013) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature investigating the diagnostic accuracy of the neurological examination to detect lumbar disc herniation with suspected radiculopathy. The authors found 14 studies that investigated three standard neurological examination components (sensory, motor, and reflexes) […]
Treatment of Chronic Pain?
Hopefully anyone seeing the title of this post will not be clicking on it thinking that I have the answers to chronic pain……please note the maze in the cover image and the question mark at the end of the title! Lets be honest, the outcomes that chronic pain patients are achieving, via all forms of […]
MRI Findings in Low Back Pain
Hopefully we are all familiar with the current view that most lower back pain is “non-specific” in nature. What this means is that there is no obvious finding on imaging (MRI etc) that can explain a cause of the patients pain. But what is some of evidence base in relation to MRI findings in low […]
Diagnosis of Spinal Pain – Research Evidence
For this post I wanted to continue the trend of posts regarding the usefulness of clinical tests to diagnose specific “structural” dysfunctions. The previous post being about the hip, this post being about “spinal” clinical tests. How useful are our clinical tests in the diagnosis of spinal pain? I think the article by Cook and […]
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