Dynamic Chiropractic - August 14, 1992, Volume 10, Issue 17

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Review


Functional Restoration of the Low Back -- LACC 5th Annual Symposium

Edited By: Steven Eggleston, D.C.

Six Audiotapes

Not long ago, the Fifth Annual Interdisciplinary Symposium was held at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC). Being an alumnus of the college, I hold a special measure of pride at the many accomplishments of this institution. One of the most visible in recent years has been the annual interdisciplinary symposiums which have brought together some of the more provocative and stimulating individuals in the allied health disciplines.

By definition, a symposium is a group discussion of a common subject. This should be kept in mind when listening to these tapes, for in a discussion you encourage diversity as much as congruence. This means that most symposiums propose as many questions as they tend to answer. And this is just as it should be.

The value in this, of course, is that it stimulates the listener to more an aggressive contemplation of just what is being done and why. Unfortunately, it's often necessary to have financial survival as our main focus after we graduate. What is most disturbing is that once a measure of security has been established, too many find the accumulation of great wealth so dazzling a prize that the intellectual grace of what is done to achieve this wealth is often sacrificed and forgotten.

Symposiums such as those given by the LACC tend to put a useful and important perspective on the practice of conservative therapeutics. Naturally a discussion is only as good as its participants, and this 5th symposium may be noted as one of the more erudite expositions into the understanding of the functional restoration of the lumbosacral spine. With such participants as Kirkaldy-Willis, Triano, and Janda, to name a few, on the program, I was duly enthralled with what I heard.

The package comes with six tapes covering the following subjects.

Tape 1:

  1. Pathogenesis
  2. How does acute pain become chronic?
  3. Testing with computerized equipment
  4. Functional examination of the back

Tape 2

  1. Training methods in private practice
  2. Training atrophied muscles
  3. A functional restoration program
  4. Psychological issues in chronic pain

Tape 3

1. Role of functional assessment in disability evaluation 2. Proprioception's role in chronic back pain 3. Making the passive/active care transition 4. Specificity of the training response 5. Sports and the spine 5. Training the failed back pain patient

Tape 4

1. Disc herniations: a simple or complex clinical problem

Tape 5

1. McKenzie protocols and demands of rehabilitation 2. Psychological dimension in chronic back pain

Tape 6

1. How to put on a back school

There are panel discussions on three of the tapes which I found to be great fun. This is where the free exchange of ideas takes place. This is also where some frustration comes to the fore. With a symposium format the listener is often drawn into the desire to participate. Being no different than the average, I was left to talking to my tape player.

Along with the tapes comes a workbook outline of most of the proceedings. If you're like me, you'll sit there listening, following the outline, and making marginal notes.

Thank goodness for video and audiotapes. They bring to us those things we cannot physically reach. And thank goodness for the LACC symposiums. If you weren't there, the tapes are the next best thing to sitting in the audience.

No adjectives I could conjure could convey my delight with this wonderful set of tapes. In spite of the almost non-existant information the public has on our educational process, we know how good we are and how good we can become if we only take the time to reach our professional potential. We have so much to be proud of and "Functional Restoration of the Low Back" is a good example. My advice is to get the tapes and learn and share the pride.

RHT