Is an Epidural the Best Treatment for my Spinal Stenosis?

Getting an epidural or injection is a very common practice to treat low back pain, especially with lumbar stenosis (or a narrowing of space along the spine that is associated with increased age).  A recent study looked at long term outcomes with epidural injections in patients with lumbar stenosis and showed:

** Injections were associated with significantly less improvement at 4 years among patients with spinal stenosis

** Injections were associated with longer duration of surgery and longer hospital stays

 Lumbar stenosis is a complex diagnosis, but physical therapy has shown promising outcomes and can be attempted as a first line treatment approach.  Contact Pursuit Physical Therapy today and see if physical therapy is the right treatment to help your spinal stenosis!

Pain and Motor Control: A Must Read for All Physical Therapists

Todd Hargrove wrote an excellent review in a 4 part series from a course that Paul Hodges and Lorimer Moseley held recently.  I already posted the links on the facebook page once, but this information regarding pain and motor control is so good that I had to post it again.  If you are a physical therapist and have never read any of Hodges's or Moseley's work, this is a must read!  This is truly great work!  I wish that I could have gone to this course and I hope it comes to Florida someday soon.  Below are the links to each review:

Part 1  Motor Control

Part 2  Neurotags, Disinhibition, and Sensitization

Part 3  Body Matrix and Neglect

Part 4  Nociception

Stop the Therapy Cap

The APTA, in conjunction with the Therapy Cap Coalition, is launching a national grassroots campaign to "Stop the Therapy Cap" on Monday, December 3, 2012. As members of FPTA and APTA, it is important that we add our voice to this campaign.  The Therapy Cap could be devastating to many SNF, geriatrics, and outpatient clinics!

More information can be found below:
http://www.apta.org/FederalIssues/TherapyCap/

http://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/NewsNow/2012/11/29/StopTheCap/

Future of Medicine?? Scary!

A colleague of mine Dr. Donley just wrote an excellent write-up regarding the future of healthcare and what ObamaCare will lead to.  Please click on the links to read.  This is very scary and those in medicine are going to a path of future uncertainty.

Treatment for Tinnitus??

Science Based Medicine did a great review of evidenced based interventions for tinnitus.  Sorry to say that there currently are no cures and it looks like we are still trying to understand the mechanism.  Below is the link:

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/is-there-a-treatment-for-tinnitus/

Say goodbye to the goniometer and hi to the smartphone!

if more and more reliability research continues to  to support using a smart phone for reliable ROM measurements, we can get rid of the goniometer!

Within-day reliability of shoulder range of motion measurement with a smartphone

Pursuit Physical Therapy You Tube Channel

You tube educational videos coming soon!  visit the Pursuit Physical Therapy channel on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/user/Pursuittherapy