Friday 15 February 2013

Lumbar spine assessment - a complete guideline


One of the most complete online guidelines for the lumbar spine assessment, broad to us by 3 ESP students of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam - Julie and her two Sara’s.

"The goal of the website is to guide students during the assessment of certain lumbar spine conditions. Therefore, we advise you to first take a look at the anatomy of the lower back to understand the conditions and gain sufficient knowledge on the subject.

The examination page talks about the general examination of the low back, including general patient history, observation as well as active and passive range of motion (ROM) and neurological testing.  This page insures you get the general knowledge you will need to assess a patient with low back problems.

Next to a-specific low back pain and malingering, the website includes lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), disc herniation, lower crossed syndrome, lumbar instability and scoliosis as low back pathologies. All these conditions are described and subdivided into the different examination parts: patient history, assessment and treatment. The first two subcategories tell you what you should look for/what you might find in a patient with that specific pathology; questions you should ask, what tests to do and what the findings might be. Also in the assessment parts, different assessment tests will be mentioned. When clicking on the test, a link will forward you to the video of the test. The video will show how to perform the test with explanations. The treatment part is only a treatment suggestion and should only be taken as an orientation".

1 comment:

  1. You're right about the lumbar spine, also known as the lower back. There are several conditions that cause lower back pain. One of the most common lower back pain problems we see comes from LSS, lumbar spinal stenosis. The good news is that there are treatments available for this painful condition. Our practice in Webster, Texas offers the MILD procedure for lower back pain and LSS patients.

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