A
Review of Strategy used by Osteopaths in the Treatment and Rehabilitation of
Acute and Chronic Sports Injuries
Ben Holland Supervisor: Heath Williams
ABSTRACT
Aims and Objectives
§
To investigate the treatment
and management strategies used within the therapeutic encounter between
Osteopaths who work predominantly in the field of sports injury compared to
those who do not.
Specifically,
- To
determine the different types of treatment offered when dealing with
specific sports injuries, differentiating between acute and chronic
presentations.
- To
compare the type of treatment modalities used by those osteopaths
working mainly with sports injury and those who do not work
predominantly with sports injury.
§
To establish whether or not
those osteopaths dealing with more sports related injuries offer a more
comprehensive rehabilitation program than those osteopaths who do not.
Methods
A questionnaire based
study, using a self-deigned questionnaire was sent to a random selection of
practicing osteopaths found in the national register.
All participants were
asked if 60% or more of their patients had sports related injuries, where
sports injury is defined as ‘an acute or traumatic injury occurring during
any sporting activity.’ Although 51% would indicate a majority 60% was
used to indicate a significant majority of patients seen who had sports
injuries.
Key findings
Fifty-one responses were
received, indicating a response rate of 50.5%. Of the returned
questionnaires, 10 (19.6%) were from Sports Osteopaths and
41 (80.4%) from Non-Sports
Osteopaths.
The response rate was significantly large enough for it to be argued
that this study is a microcosm of the general population of osteopaths
throughout England.
The
different modalities utilised by osteopaths in the treatment of injuries
varies significantly. In the sample,
54.9% of osteopaths used more techniques when treating chronic injuries;
this was true of 90% of Sports Osteopaths. Respondents used most techniques
when treating facet strain injury, the most popular technique being High
Velocity Thrust (HVT) in both the acute and chronic phase of injury. The
least amount of techniques were used in the treatment of a fracture,
referral was most common. The majority of osteopaths support the use of
hydrocortisone injection and almost all respondents made referral to
orthopaedic consultants at some point each year. A rehabilitation program
was offered unanimously with 72.5% of the respondents self-designing the
program, 4% referring and 23.5% using a combination of the two.