COURSE OBJECTIVES
Global Objectives:
To update delegates on the most recent developments in function of the lumbar spine – specifically how it works and how it becomes injured, and how this is linked to pain sensitivity. This is to develop an evidence based foundation for clinical decision making.
To provide guidance in the application of this knowledge to the clinic, workplace, rehabilitation center, and sports field to reduce the risk of injury, optimize healing of the patient, and build ultimate back performance in the athlete.
To give practice and technique development with workshops throughout the day.
COURSE OUTLINE
Restoring a painful back begins with a detailed assessment. McGill demonstrates and teaches pain provocation through mechanical and neurological approaches intended to reveal the cause of pain. The algorithm is based on branching logic. Delegates will hone their manual skills, together with clinical reasoning skills, work-shopping tests both on and off the exam table. This will lead to a precise diagnosis that forms the foundation for teaching the patient how to wind down their pain sensitivity. The second stage begins when pain is controlled, and the objectives shift to enhancing function and performance. This is a smaller more intimate course, primarily around the exam table.
STRUCTURED OUTLINE
9 am – 12 noon
1: The foundation
Background (Lecture)
Movement assessments and screens
Mechanisms of function, injury and pain
Medical images (MR, CT, Ultrasound) interpretation
Differential diagnosis
12 – 1 pm
LUNCH
1 pm – 5 pm
2: The assessment (hands-on workshop at assessment tables)
Assessment Clinic
Assessment forms
Provocative tests, movement tests
These include motions, postures, loads and then specific tissues
Compression, shear, bending, tension, etc
Discs, end plates, vertebral bodies, sciatic and femoral nerve roots, SI joints, Facet joints, hip joints, muscle
Pain mechanisms including directionally frictioned nerve roots, multiple pain sources, dynamic disc bulges, pelvic ring laxity, among many others.
Support material
3: Interpreting the signs and special cases Special Cases
Spinal shock
Neural resonance
Neural traps
Fibromyalgia
Scoliosis, Stenosis, etc