Rehabilitation of the Spine, 2nd Edition

DVD Review by Mark King, DC

Title:

Rehabilitation of the Spine, 2nd Edition*

Editor:

Craig Liebenson, DC

Publisher:

Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

Price:

$99.95

Part #:

T-295

*Book includes companion DVD

The second edition of this text is edited by Craig Liebenson, DC, and published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. I like to review books that I am particularly interested in, and this book fits the bill. I was very impressed and got a great deal of clinical and practical information from Dr. Liebenson's first edition, which was published in 1996. He has taken that text, expanded it and added a modern flare with a companion DVD that demonstrates various tests, patient exercises and treatment modalities.

The book breaks down into seven sections, with part I as an overview. Part II goes into some of the basic sciences. An assessment section is very comprehensive, addressing both the physical and psychological components of your patient's condition. Treatment is broken down into acute care management, with an emphasis on chronic pain pattern avoidance, and then recovery care management is introduced. The spine is further broken down by region and practical application in part VI. The last section, part VII, deals with implementing this functional approach. There is a tremendous amount of valuable information in this text, although you will not be able to apply everything. You can pick tests and treatment techniques that you particularly like and make them work in your office.

There is an excellent chapter on manipulation written by Dr. George DeFranca. Dr. David Seaman has a great nutrition chapter that is applicable to your daily practice. Dr. Liebenson is involved directly with many of the chapters, and has gathered contributors from a virtual "who's who" in the manual therapy world. People such as Howard Vernon, Stuart McGill, Vladimir Janda, Donald Murphy, Clayton Skaggs, Paul Hodges, Gwendolen Jull, Chris Norris, Karel Lewit, John Triano, and William Kirkaldy-Willis have contributed, to name just a few. It is quite an impressive faculty of writers.

There is too much about this book to cover in a short review, but in summary, I will say that this is a very important book for the chiropractic profession and manual therapists in general. There is information you can use in your office tomorrow to help patients you were unable to help previously. This is the kind of text that helps move our profession forward with a modern-day approach, rather than the same old "pop and pray," random treatment approach used by some.

One of the difficulties with practicing in today's health care environment is applying all of this excellent information in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner, while getting better results with your patients so they refer their family and friends to help grow your practice. This book will help you learn these current approaches and how to do them in a time-efficient manner. With the DVD included in the book, it is as though you are taking one of Dr. Liebenson's classes in the comfort of your office or living room.

There are several books every chiropractor should have. This is one of them. Go out and buy this book, learn the principles behind it, and you will see the results with your patients and subsequent growth in your practice. This book also will help in the growth of our profession in the modern health care world. If chiropractors want to be part of health care in the coming years, learning the information in this text is crucial.