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Chiropractic Management of Post-concussion Headache and Neck Pain In a Young Athlete and Implications For Return-To-Play

By Frank M. Painter|January 1, 2012|Diagnosis|

Chiropractic Management of Post-concussion Headache and Neck Pain In a Young Athlete and Implications For Return-To-Play

SOURCE: Topics in Integrative Health Care 2011 (Oct 7); 2 (3)

Mark T. Pfefer, RN, MS, DC, Stephen R. Cooper, DC,
Angela M. Boyazis

Director of Research,
Cleveland Chiropractic College

Objective: Each year there are an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related brain injuries; 136,000 of which occur in young athletes in the course of high school sports. The purpose of this article is to discuss the management and outcome of a post-concussive headache and neck pain in a young athlete and implications for return to play.

Clinical Features: A 16-year-old male athlete presented to a chiropractic clinic complaining of neck pain and daily headaches from a concussion while playing football 5 weeks previously.

Intervention and Outcome: A short course of diversified-type cervical and thoracic manipulation was applied with significant relief after the second treatment and resolution of symptoms after 5 visits performed over 2 weeks. The athlete was able to participate in a graduated return to play. Three months post-SRC the athlete was able to return to full game play symptom free.

Conclusion: Chiropractors who see athletes in their practices should be aware of SRC and return to play guidelines.

Introduction

Recently attention has been focused on sports-related concussions (SRC), in part due to the untimely concussion-related deaths of high school athletes, cognitive problems in professional football players, and head injuries sidelining professional hockey players for extended periods of time. Understanding the signs and symptoms of SRC and appropriate return-to-play recommendations is imperative to the safety of all athletes and young athletes in particular.

Each year in the United States, there are an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related brain injuries; [1] 136,000 of which occur in young athletes in the course of high school sports. [2] However, these statistics may be grossly underestimated. McCrea and colleagues [3] found over half of a sample of high school football players did not report a head injury, even though it had occurred. One of the reasons for this is a failure of athletes to recognize their injury as significant. Delany and coworkers [4, 5] found that only 18.8% to 23.4% of concussed players in the Canadian Football League, and Canadian university football and soccer players realized they had sustained a concussion. Another factor in the underestimation of SRCs is the reporting of head injuries to untrained personnel, such as coaches or parents, who in turn may fail to recognize a concussion. [3, 6, 7]

There are many more articles like this @:

Headache and Chiropractic Page

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Happy New Year!!!

By Frank M. Painter|January 1, 2012|Announcement|

To all of you, from all of us at Chiro.Org

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Zen and the Art of Chiropractic Maintenance

By Frank M. Painter|December 29, 2011|Cost-Effectiveness, Maintenance Care|

Zen and the Art of Chiropractic Maintenance
An Inquiry Into Health Care Values

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Dynamic Chiropractic

By Anthony Rosner, PhD, LLD [Hon.], LLC

With all due respect to Robert Pirsig’s classic tome of the 1970s, [1] the book title couldn’t be more appropriately applied to both the state and lack of recognition of chiropractic health care.

As Pirsig explains in his introduction, the book itself isn’t an expostulation on orthodox Zen Buddhist philosophies, or for that matter motorcycles. Rather, it describes a journey with philosophical reflections along the way.

The same might be said of chiropractic’s own journey, in this case seeking proper recognition. In particular, chiropractic from the point of view of a variety of third-party payers has been repeatedly turned down for reimbursement when it comes to matters of maintenance or preventive therapy. Completely counterintuitive, you might say, in light of the repeated and sometimes urgent declarations that we hear to the effect that the only way to control the runaway costs and inefficiency of American health care is to emphasize preventive care, placing it at the highest rather than lowest priority of interventions. [2]

The evidence from recent research clearly demonstrates that the provision of maintenance or preventive measures from chiropractors appears to deliver tangible benefits, with major impacts upon our health care system:

Cost-Effectiveness

As part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment program, the RAND Corporation studied a subpopulation of patients who were under chiropractic care compared to those who were not, and found that the individuals under continuing chiropractic care were:

free from the use of a nursing home (95.7 percent vs. 80.8 percent);
free from hospitalizations for the past 23 years (73.9 percent vs. 52.4 percent);
more likely to report a better health status;
more likely to exercise vigorously;
and more likely to be mobile in the community (69.6 percent vs. 46.8 percent).

Although it is impossible to clearly establish causality, it is clear that continuing chiropractic care is among the attributes of the cohort of patients experiencing substantially fewer costly health care interventions. [3] (more…)

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Humorous Haiku

By Frank M. Painter|December 28, 2011|Humor|

Humorous Haiku

The Chiro.Org Blog

And now for something completely different…

Sound Familiar?

The web site you seek
Cannot be located but
Countless more exist.

Computer Nightmare

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Dead Monitors

First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

Computer Nightmare II

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

Lost Data

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Computer Nightmare III

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will

Like a bird

I wish I could fly,
especially this moment.
High-speed police chase

Dad’s Advice

My dad once told me
son, you need to get a job.
What was he thinking?

Special thanks to:Humorous Haiku, Computer Haiku, Humorous Haiku II

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Chiropractic Perspectives On Myofascial Therapy

By Frank M. Painter|December 22, 2011|Education, Technique|

Chiropractic Perspectives On Myofascial Therapy

The Chiro.Org Blog

We would all like to thank Dr. Richard C. Schafer, DC, PhD, FICC for his lifetime commitment to the profession. In the future we will continue to add materials from RC’s copyrighted books for your use.

This is Chapter 15 from RC’s best-selling book:

“Applied Physiotherapy in Chiropractic”

These materials are provided as a service to our profession. There is no charge for individuals to copy and file these materials. However, they cannot be sold or used in any group or commercial venture without written permission from ACAPress.

Chapter 15: Chiropractic Perspectives On Myofascial Therapy

The purpose of this chapter is to improve the doctor of chiropractic’s understanding of the significance of myofascial pain and dysfunction, and to improve the chiropractor’s level of competence in diagnosing the myofascial component of the subluxation complex.

The myofascial orientation in the chiropractic setting directs the doctor to look first for a myofascial source of the patient’s pain, and when found, to use numerous techniques and procedures to offer rapid relief. Lowe recommends broad spectrum therapeutics to be employed after the performance of myofascial therapy to assure maximum flexibility. [1]

Definition

Myofascial therapy may be defined in several ways. Basically, it is the treatment of the myopathophysiologic component of the vertebral subluxation complex. It is also the treatment of trigger points, areas of increased neurologic activity in muscle tissue, causing the secondary referral of pain with subsequent associated autonomic changes. [2]

The pain attributed to myofascial dysfunction is usually restricted to a certain region such as the cervical or upper thoracic area, lumbar and buttock area, or the cranial/TMJ area. A trigger point, often the cause of such pain, is always tender and palpably taut. This prevents full lengthening of the muscle and produces muscle weakening, altered proprioception, predictable referred pain patterns, and an objectively verifiable local twitch response during palpation. [3]

Historic Background

Several key figures have contributed to our understanding of the widespread cause of muscular pain syndromes, among them Travell, Rolf, and, in our own profession, Nimmo. Another chiropractor who added greatly to our understanding of the role of muscles in various pain syndromes was Gillet of Belgium. Gillet wrote, “Concerning the subluxation or misalignment, we prefer the term fixation, which describes far more accurately the actual status of the [peri]articular soft tissues, where we will find that it is the state of these tissues that actually keeps the two surfaces from moving. The osteopaths, very early on, stated that the soft tissues can vary from the simplest muscular contracture to a complete degenerative fibrosis of the muscles. The previous facts are not new ….unfortunately, x-rays, introduced early in chiropractic history, have done much to propagate the idea of the spine as a string of bones. Even today, many practitioners act as if they still believe the childish propaganda they so nimbly offer to the public, that it’s a bone out of place in the back.” [4] (more…)

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