Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment for Pertussis in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Structured Historical Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, have increased in recent years despite widespread vaccination and adequate antibiotic treatments. Osteopathic physicians may want to consider using osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) as an adjunctive treatment modality for pertussis; however, suitable OMT techniques are not specified in the research literature. OBJECTIVE: To search the historical osteopathic literature to identify OMT techniques that were used in the management of pertussis in the pre-antibiotic era. METHODS: A structured literature review of electronic databases and historical osteopathic journals and books was conducted. Included were information on OMT techniques used for patients with pertussis. RESULTS: The 24 identified sources included 8 articles and 16 book contributions from the years 1886 to 1958. Most sources were published within the first quarter of the 20th century. Commonly identified OMT techniques included mobilization techniques, lymphatic pump techniques, and other manipulative techniques predominantly in the cervical and thoracic regions. CONCLUSION: The wealth of OMT techniques for patients with pertussis that were identified suggests that pertussis was commonly treated by early osteopaths. Further research is necessary to identify or establish the evidence base for these techniques so that in case of favorable outcomes, their use by osteopathic physicians is justified as adjunctive modalities when encountering a patient with pertussis.

A.T. Still's Osteopathic Lesion Theory and Evidence-Based Models Supporting the Emerged Concept of Somatic Dysfunction.

Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO, coined the original idea of lesion based on the obstruction of flow of body fluids, but primarily referring to bony structures and more precisely to the spine. Throughout the 20th century, this idea was shaped and developed into the concept of somatic dysfunction, a term that is familiar to both US-trained osteopathic physicians and foreign-trained osteopaths and has been an essential cornerstone of osteopathic practice and teaching. The present historical narrative review offers an overview of the evolution of Still's original lesion concept, major evidence-based models of somatic dysfunction that attempt to explain the clinical findings, and a critique of the concept.

[History of conservative spinal therapy]. / Geschichte der konservativen Wirbelsäulentherapie.

Hippocrates was the first to intensively describe and document the principles for the treatment of injuries and diseases of the spine. His principles for abrupt treatment of the "hunchback" were followed by physicians even up to the end of the nineteenth century. The non-operative treatment of scoliosis was improved in the beginning of the sixteenth century by the introduction of mechanical devices that started the development of corsets which are still in use in modern scoliosis treatment. Stretching beds were only in temporary use. With the beginning of the nineteenth century gymnastics and physiotherapy became more and more important. Manual therapy was exercised by physicians until the late Middle Ages. After a long period of time in which bonesetters and other laymen performed manual therapy it was professionalized at the end of the nineteenth century again by the introduction of osteopathy and chiropractic. In Germany the development and introduction of manual treatment started relatively late in the twentieth century, predominantly as manual medicine.

Clinical and research protocol for osteopathic manipulative treatment of elderly patients with pneumonia.

Pneumonia in elderly patients is a major public health concern because of greater morbidity and mortality and longer hospital stays relative to younger populations. Based on the premise that osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is beneficial in the management of pulmonary infections, the Multicenter Osteopathic Pneumonia Study in the Elderly (MOPSE) was designed as a prospective randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of OMT as an adjunct to the current pharmacologic treatment of elderly patients hospitalized for pneumonia. The protocol developed for MOPSE has its origins in early osteopathic medical literature at a time when effective antibiotic therapy was unavailable and osteopathic physicians relied on physical examination and empiric reasoning to develop treatment strategies and OMT techniques to improve host defenses against pneumonia. The present paper reviews the early osteopathic medical literature to identify the reasoning behind the OMT techniques that are the basis for the design of the MOPSE protocol. Likewise, the contemporary medical literature relevant to the protocol is reviewed. Finally, a description of the study design and the OMT and light touch (sham) protocols used in MOPSE are provided.