Postgraduate course
Postgraduate course at Vancouver's campus - Understanding and treating lumbar discogenic injuries and other common low back complaints
From 24 to 27 March 2023 with Jane Eliza Stark, MS, D.O.M.P.
Presentation
It is estimated that fifty percent of patients seeking the help of manual practitioners, including osteopaths, do so for low back pain. In many cases that pain is assumed to be caused by annual tears and/or discal protrusions causing pressure on the local nerve root. Jane will refute this commonly accepted theory by offering an alternative explanation. Frequently, it is not discal pressure on a nerve root but rather the protrusion that causes a vascular compromise of the nerve root or an abnormal traction force on the nerve which cause the patient’s symptoms. Images of a spinal canal dissection of a fresh cadaver will help illustrate this concept.
Description
This course focuses on the mechanico-vascular reasons for low back pain and disability. The complex vascular relationships between the brain, skull, spinal canal, and spinal cord will be explained. In the practical sessions, assessment and treatment strategies will be offered from global and local perspectives. Included in the practice sessions will be techniques, originating with William Garner Sutherland, that are not taught at the college. His techniques are exceedingly simple to perform and usually provide remarkable results. They will include unique approaches for the diaphragm, psoas, the lumbar spine (treated in standing) and the ilio-sacral joints (also treated in standing). The cranium will be highlighted because of the role it plays in the vascular regulation of the vertebral plexuses (internal and external) and treated using techniques not included in the CEO curriculum.
What you will learn during this workshop?
How to explain to their patients the mechanism of lumbar disc injuries How to recognize easing and aggravating factors How to avoid future episodes, and most importantly, (in non-surgical cases) How to take care of themselves in the acute and recovery stage with the aid of (non-Mackenzie-based) exercises
Conclusion
Postural balance plays a key role in reducing the pressure and preventing future occurrences. Ideas for restoring optimal balance will be offered. In order to provide the patient with a complete treatment, very specific home care exercises for L5/S1 and L4/L5 will also be demonstrated and practiced. These exercises were designed with the theoretical intention of diminishing the intra-discal pressure so that the discal material may begin (at the very least) to stop extruding and in the best-case scenario be drawn back within the disc.