McKenzie Method & self treatment guides

January 14, 2021 by Sian Smale

A reflective piece on the self-treatment guides created by the late Robin McKenzie. A true pioneer and leader in our profession who was passionate about the treatment of musculoskeletal pain disorders. His work in renown world wide for ‘repeated movements’ and ‘directional preferences’ commonly known as the McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy. His wisdom and pearls from years of patient management have been distilled into self-treatment guides. This blog reviews five of his books involving self-treatment of the neck, back, shoulder, hip and knee.

Quantitative Sensory Testing...in research & the clinic

June 16, 2020 by Alicia Rayner

Persistent pain is commonly linked to central sensitisation, or central modulating, due to pain hypersensitivity. Given this correlation, it seems very important that we assess this sensitivity. But how do we assess it, what do the results tell us, and can we assess this in the clinic?

Patient rated outcome measures (PROM) in Chronic Pain

February 26, 2020 by Sian Smale

As our knowledge of chronic pain broadens, we are beginning to appreciate that there are modifiable risk factors that contribute to the development of long term pain and disability. Fear avoidance, negative beliefs, anxiety and depression are just a few. Several outcome measures are currently available to clinicians to help guide their clinical reasoning by identifying these risk factors. The purpose of this blog is to look specifically at outcome measures and explore how they guide our patient management.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome - clinical assessment

January 23, 2020 by Sian Smale

Recently I listed to a fantastic podcast by Jo Gibson through Clinical Edge on Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and was thrilled to learn some advances which have taken place in our knowledge of this condition since I first published a blog on the topic in 2013. Seven years later and I am excited to share a revised piece that includes the latest ideas around clinical assessment, and in particular sensory testing in the differential diagnosis of this challenging condition.

Lateral Epicondylalgia - Pathophysiology & Clinical Assessment

February 24, 2017 by Sian Smale

This is a two-part series looking at the pathophysiology, clinical assessment and treatment of a common elbow pain condition, lateral epicondylalgia. In this blog we discuss new research that explains the complexities of this condition, why tennis elbow and epicondylitis are terms no longer used and how our assessment should be structured.

Flexion relaxation response & low back pain

June 14, 2016 by Sian Smale

The flexion relaxation response is a phenomenon where the lumbar erector spinae muscles become silent at the end of lumbar flexion, and is an important part of being able to achieve full range. This blog explores the FRR and offers simple and easy treatment strategies for patients with low back pain.