When your patient has low back pain and neurological symptoms, is surgery the best option? How can you combine your clinical reasoning, the evidence and patient preferences to help your patient make a decision on whether to have surgery or adopt a conservative treatment approach?
Now available - Clinical reasoning presentation 12: Do I need surgery? A case study with Simon Olivotto
Simon Olivotto’s (Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist) patient in this case study presentation has low back pain with a radiculopathy, and is booked to have a spinal fusion in three weeks. Will they have surgery? Will they trial or respond to a non-surgical treatment approach? Find out in this presentation, as you explore:
- How to use clinical reasoning in your subjective and objective assessment of low back patients.
- How to use your subjective examination to perform a targeted objective low back pain examination.
- How to differentially diagnose a lumbar radiculopathy.
- How to perform a neurological assessment.
- How to interpret assessment findings to help guide your treatment of low back patients.
- How can you approach the treatment of low back pain patients that are painful in all movement directions.
- What is shared decision making, and how will it help improve your treatment results?
- How to develop a patient centred management plan with shared decision making when patients are advised by a doctor to have surgery.
- The evidence for spinal surgery, injections and non-operative management of radiculopathy.
- How to use shared decision making to help your patients make evidence informed treatment decisions.
- How to treat patients with painful movements in all directions, when symptoms are unchanged with manual therapy or postural modification.
- A practical example of how to use your clinical reasoning to predict patient recovery.
Aims and objectives
- Develop clinical reasoning in the assessment and treatment of low back pain patients with radiculopathy.
- Perform an accurate, evidence-informed assessment of low back patients.
- Build a patient centred treatment approach with shared decision making to help patients make evidence-informed decisions.
- Review the current evidence for spinal surgery, injections and non-operative management of radiculopathy.
- Predict patient recovery using clinical reasoning.
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