Physiotherapists in Liverpool treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

The Course of Low Back Pain

Low back pain is always described as being either acute, sub acute or chronic with acute pain lasting less than six weeks, sub acute pain from six weeks to twelve weeks and chronic pain lasting over the twelve week point. Most people were assumed to recover quickly and go back to normal with only a small number suffering longer term pain and disability. However, research has shown that it is an episodic and recurring condition and present for much longer than generally thought. 75% of patients with back pain in primary care still had symptoms a year later in one study, indicating back pain is more of a chronic picture overall.

Patients with chronic back pain are not uniformly severe or disabled but rather suffer a varying degree of pain and disability over time. Old views used to be that 80-90 percent of back episodes resolved completed but it is much more realistic to view it as a longer term grumbling problem. The main predictor for people having back pain in the future is having had it in the past and this supports the above idea of back pain as a continuing problem. For most people back pain is a common but limited irritation which recurs from time to time.

Physiotherapy and Manipulation

Manipulation is the moving and affecting of bodily tissues by using the hands and encompasses a wide variety of techniques including massage, deep frictions, mobilisation techniques and the forceful treatments commonly referred to as manipulation. Physiotherapists often train to perform manipulations which in this case are sudden, strong movements directed at a joint in an attempt to force it beyond the range of movement it is presently capable of. Mobilisation techniques are gentler and work within the ranges of motion available to the joint, while manipulation aims to restore what movement the joint should have.

Manipulation can be performed in the acute setting such as treating acute wry neck or a sudden onset of severe back pain. Treatment in this case may relocate the structure which is .out of place. or allow a pinched tissue area to be released and so relieve the compression suffered. Manipulation has been shown to reduce the length of time the person suffers the problem but has little effect on the overall outcome in time. More chronic conditions may be helped by manipulation to restore a range of movement which is restricted and the potential cause of pain. Physios are trained to safely and effective manage manipulative techniques.