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.

Kinesiophobia...What? Why? How?

December 28, 2019 by Alicia Rayner

Kinesiophobia is often mentioned when discussing persistent pain, but what is kinesiophobia? And how is it relevant to physiotherapy? This article discusses the definition, relevance to physiotherapy and assessment techniques.

Screening for VBI & CAD in patients with cervical spine pain

December 18, 2019 by Sian Smale

In 2018, the Australian Physiotherapy Association published revised clinical guidelines for safe practice of manual therapy on the cervical spine. This topic of “safety” and in particular, identifying patients presenting with signs of VBI and CAD (vertebrobasilar insufficiency and cervical arterial dissection) is a topic I’ve come back to many times throughout my career. This blog is a revision of the current recommendations for the identification of CAD and VBI.