The Effectiveness of Manual Therapies on the Thoracic Spine
The Thoracic Spine:[edit | edit source]
Anatomy:[edit | edit source]
- It is the longest portion of the spine, connecting to the Cervical Spine above and the Lumbar Spine below
- It comprises of 12 Vertebrae (T1-T12)
- The vertebrae bodies have a similar structure to that of the cervical spine.
- The spinous process increase in size the further down the thoracic spine.
- Each vertebrae sits above and below a IVD.
Main Conditions:[edit | edit source]
Contraindications to Manual Therapy:[edit | edit source]
Manual Therapies[edit | edit source]
Mobilisations:[edit | edit source]
Sympo-excitatory response[edit | edit source]
Joint mobilisations have been defined by maitland as an externally imposed, small amplitude passive motion that is intended to produce gliding or traction at a joint[1].
They are often used in the Physiotherapy management in order to produce mechanical and neurophysiological effects[1]. It has been theorised by many authors that this is achieved when the sympathetic nervous system is excited following mobilisations, and thus the pain threshold increases. There have been several RCT's surrounding this area of interest so a systematic review was written by Kingston et al (2014) on the topic[2] and found that each study did demonstrate an sympo-excitatory response. Therefore following an acute injury, or where a patient is suffering from painful inflammation of the target area, it would be useful to treat them centrally, using mobilisations, away from the target area. This can be performed at any level of the spine, including the thoracic spine.
Pulmonary Function[edit | edit source]
Recent evidence has been published acknowledging the benefits of thoracic mobilisations on pulmonary function in patients. When combined with self stretching exercises such as
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Manipulations:[edit | edit source]
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Soft Tissue (STT):[edit | edit source]
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