PT just as good as surgery!

November 21, 2006

I herd a segment about back pain on NPR as I was driving home from work today. I was glad to hear the surgeon say that pain does not equal damage and he encouraged physical activity. Unfortunately, physical therapy was not talk about much. You can check out some of his comments at NPR.org.

Here is the article: Surgical vs Nonoperative Treatment of Lumbar Disk Herniation.

Posted at 07:36 PM in Research | Permalink

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Comments

This is also a big article in the Health section of the New York Times today. I plan to have my parents pick up a few copies so that I can post it in the clinic.

Posted by: Charles Sheets | November 22, 2006 at 05:59 AM

Also was a 15 min. piece on the News Hour (PBS) last night. They went into detail about the poor decision making that leads to neuro-surgery (evidenced by the differing rates of surgery that are found in diff. regions of the country). They also talked about how the dooms-day warnings (i.e. paralysis) given to patients by many neuro-surgeons weren't seen in patients who did not recieve surgery. They did mention physical therapy several times as being just as effective as surgical measures. All in all, the coverage seems to me to be positive press for us, and an important study for us to familiarize ourselves with. Ben

Posted by: Ben Hando | November 22, 2006 at 08:41 AM

I believe NPR has run this article before. I sent a reply to NPR discussing how they did not mention PT as a non-operative treatment. I received a "thank you reply" and that was it. A few days later NPR ran another article which did discuss some PT treatment, however, it did not give the PT the proper depth of potential help. I wish they would consult actual manual physical therapists when writing an article like that. I feel, as many do, that lack of professional recognition is one of obstacles as physical therapists. Let's all continue to spread the word on what PT can do for people.

Posted by: Steve | November 22, 2006 at 08:50 AM

I don't get the paper and I definitely don't listen to NPR. I was glad I checked here this morning!

I was at the local pool today to assist in instructing/brainstorming specific activities a patient of mine could do in an aquatic environment. (I'm failing miserably with pretty much everything on land.) This particular patient has been performing aquatic exercises sponsored by the arthritis foundation (good class overall). I was allowed to come in and work with her to add some stuff specific for her and her situation. Word spread through the group that I was a physical therapist and then I was recognized by a few of them, so then they all knew my name. There were maybe 20 people in the pool - 5 of them splashed over to me to talk to me about physical therapy and they were all yapping about an article in the paper about low back surgeries and conservative treatment... and they wanted to talk to me and tell me about it.. and they all had stories to share... and then others had questions for me and what physical therapy can do. Of course, I had to get a few of them wound up somewhat because I had treated them years ago for back problems - I had to tell them that the article wasn't news to them and they already knew about conservative treatment and the results. I'm horrible at marketing. My mindset was to get there, stay dry, brainstorm, do some trial and error and have a program figured out for her and geesh... I guess it was good, but wow... I felt like I was bombarded and kind of disruptive for the poor instructor of the class.

You know what I really liked the best about the take home message? Forget about physical therapy and our profession - the message that there is a decent amount of the population with radicular symptoms that DO get better. That's a great message for the public to receive. The more they know that message the greater the potential for our role to be somewhat easier because the belief/perceptions of patients may not be so engrained with fear.

Posted by: Selena Horner | November 22, 2006 at 01:47 PM

Selena-

If you don't read the paper or listen to NPR, it's a good thing you were in that pool that day.
That must be the "push" part of evidence...

I think this is definitely a great issue for us to know about. As an aside, we're talking about it on MyPTConnect, to...
(hint,hint)

Posted by: Jason Silvernail | November 26, 2006 at 07:04 AM

Hey, there isn't any reason for me to have to wade through the paper or listen to NPR when there are a lot of mighty fine people here that do it for me!

Posted by: Selena Horner | November 26, 2006 at 09:07 AM