International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine最新文献

Anatomy has been a cornerstone of osteopathic theory, practice and identity since the discipline's emergence in the 1800s and continues to be viewed as core knowledge to the present day. The domain of anatomical knowledge has provided seemingly endless rationales and explanations to justify osteopathic diagnosis, assessment and treatment. Moreover, knowledge of anatomy has been foundational for osteopaths' professional identity and conception of healthcare practice. Anatomical possibilism refers to the imagined, exaggerated, implausible and unproven relationships which are claimed to exist between anatomical structures. In persisting with such an approach to theory, practice and reasoning osteopathy may waste time, energy and intellectual capital and as a result fail to take advantage of opportunities to develop more plausible, ethical and person-focused approaches to patient care.

Background and Objectives

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are instruments that capture patients' perspectives of their own health status and quality of life. As part of rising advocacy for their use in clinical practice, PROMs are said to hold promise for the management of long-term conditions. This study aimed to describe and explore New Zealand osteopaths’ use of PROMs for patients with chronic low back pain.

Methods

An online survey was adapted to investigate New Zealand osteopaths’ use of PROMs with patients who have chronic LBP. Topics included frequency of use, purposes for use, and determinants to use. Respondents were recruited via anonymous and non-randomised sampling across multiple platforms. Frequencies, means, and standard deviations were calculated for all numerical data. Content analysis was used to analyse textual data on determinants to use.

Results

In total, 79 osteopaths were included in data analysis. These respondents most often used PROMs to monitor patients’ pain intensity (80%) and sometimes also functional disability (27%). Although the respondents had some regard for their capability to use PROMs, they also claimed to be constrained by limited time and social or professional norms. Respondents were more attentive to the consequences of PROMs for patients than for other stakeholders.

Conclusions

Although New Zealand osteopaths may use PROMs to monitor the burden of chronic LBP, they probably do not use PROMs for the multidimensional assessment of pain or psychosocial factors. New Zealand osteopaths may be most receptive to adopting PROMs if they are presented with relevant interventions and evidence of their benefits for patients.

Background: Persistent and intractable hiccups are poorly understood and reduce the quality of life of afflicted patients. Hiccups lasting longer than 48 hours are defined as “persistent,” and those lasting longer than 30 days as “intractable.” Both persistent and intractable hiccups are rare diseases included in the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) registry, with cases of intractable hiccups being extremely rare. There are limited effective treatment options currently available for both persistent and intractable hiccups.

Clinical features: Reported here is the case of a 25-year-old female patient with a 7-year history of intractable hiccups that were successfully treated with osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). Her hiccups began in 2015, typically occurring in couplets, with upwards of 50 hiccups per day. In 2016, she was treated by her primary care physician for H. pylori, with no improvement. Referred to a gastroenterologist, she underwent an endoscopy that showed normal findings, and she was subsequently referred to a neurologist. A CT scan of the brain was performed and showed normal findings, prompting the neurologist to suggest muscle relaxants (which were refused at the time) and various breathing and relaxation techniques, including talk therapy. With the continued failure of these treatments, the patient attempted acupuncture without benefit. In early 2022, the patient decided to try the muscle relaxant baclofen and found no benefit after two months of treatment.

Intervention and outcomes: In August 2022, osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) was administered over five sessions. After the third session, the patient noticed a complete absence of her typical hiccups but began experiencing frequent “micro” hiccups that produced little-to-no sound. After the fourth treatment and continuing past the fifth treatment, the patient has had a near complete cessation of her hiccups, about 1–2 “micro” hiccups per week. Follow up with the patient on May 1, 2023, confirmed the continued resolution of her intractable hiccups.

Conclusion: In a 25-year-old female patient without prior or concurrent medical conditions, OMT techniques successfully treated intractable hiccups of a 7-year duration. This case supports a potential role for OMT in the care of intractable hiccups.

Questions relating to osteopathic identity are likely to be characterised by double facets made up of both traditional and contemporary elements. The analysis conducted aims to be robust by presenting these components as elements able to dialogue. It is through Paul Ricoeur's concept that we propose as an approach: the idem identity concerns the elements that provide a certain temporal stability whilst the ipse identity embodies the variable aspects of the constitutive elements of osteopathy. Osteopathy's identity would thus be modelled by the association of these two regularly interacting influences insofar as they serve both issues: shaping a disciplinary specificity, and the requirements focused on the improvement of patient care.

Background

Limited evidence exists concerning the long-term follow-up of pain management in individuals with coccydynia.

Objective

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of combining manipulation and exercise as a treatment approach for patients with coccydynia, while also assessing its long-term outcomes.

Design

Six months follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

Setting

This study was conducted in a private hospital.

Methods

The control group (n = 23) received exercise alone, while the experimental group (n = 23) received both exercise and manipulation. All participants performed exercises three days a week for four weeks, and the manipulation sessions were conducted once a week for a total of four sessions. Pain levels were assessed using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), coccydynia symptoms were evaluated using the Paris questionnaire, and pain-related disability was measured with the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).

Participants

Forty-six participants were enrolled in the study.

Results

No statistically significant differences were observed in the demographic characteristics between the two groups (p > 0.05). However, participants in the manipulation group showed a statistically significant improvement in pain, symptoms, and ODI scores compared to the control group, both immediately after treatment and at the 6-month follow-up (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that the combination of exercise and intrarectal manipulation over a four-week period significantly reduced pain, coccydynia-related symptoms, and disability scores in chronic coccydynia patients. However, no therapeutic superiority was observed in the long-term follow-up of six months.

Background

Low back pain (LBP) is a worldwide public health problem. The flexion-distraction technique (FDT) has been considered to treat LBP. However, the adequate dosage and the treatment effects are not clearly understood. This feasibility study aimed to assess the effects of different exposure times with 5 and 10 min of the FDT on the L5-S1 distance and pressure pain threshold (PPT) of patients with chronic LBP.

Methods

A two-arm, examiner-blinded, randomized controlled feasibility trial with participants with chronic LBP enrolled in an outpatient clinic. Participants were randomly assigned to FDT-T5 (5 min) or FDT-T10 (10 min). The distance between the L5 lamina and the sacral promontory, and the PPT at the L5 spinous process was measured before and immediately after FDT. Ultrasound imaging was used to measure L5-S1 distance, and the pressure algometry examined the PPT. Pre- and post-intervention data were compared between two groups by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures. We also calculated the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the L5-S1 measurement.

Results

Seventeen participants [10 (58.8 %) females, mean age 45 (±12) years] completed all procedures. Improvements in the intervertebral space [FDT-T5 mean change = 2.65 (95 %CI 1.45, 3.85) mm; FDT-T10 mean change = 1.88 (95 %CI -1.86, 5.63) mm] and decreases in PPT values [FDT-T5 mean change = −0.55 (95 %CI -1.35, 0.26) Kgf; FDT-T10 mean change = −0.79 (95 %CI -1.92, 0.34) Kgf] were observed, although there was no significant difference between the two groups for the distance between the L5 lamina and the sacral promontory (p = 0.595) or the spinous process L5 PPT (p = 0.672) after the intervention. Good reliability values were found for inter- and intra-rater measurements ranging between ICC = 0.81 to ICC = 0.88).

Conclusion

In this feasibility trial, both groups showed an increased distance between L5-S1 and decreased the PPT in the L5 spinous process, indicating greater pain sensitivity after the intervention. These quantitative methods may measure distance and pain in definitive studies.

Implications for practice

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  This is the first study to compare the distance between the L5 lamina and the sacral promontory after the flexion-distraction technique (FDT) using ultrasound imaging (USI).

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  The present study could not determine the effect of a particular time of exposure to FDT (FDT-T5 or FDT-T10 min).

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  Both groups (FDT-T5 and FDT-T10 min) increased the lumbar distance, corresponding to mobilization of the lumbar region.

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  Both groups presented decreased values of PPT in the L5 spinous process immediately after the technique.

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  A single session of FDT showed i