| Upper Extremity Practical |
| Written by Erik Gulbrandsen | |
| Thursday, 05 October 2006 | |
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So you have your upper extremity practical next week? Does it look like there are a TON of joints, a bunch of treatments, random glides, and worst of all you're not really sure why you need to know all this stuff? Let's start with the cold, hard truth: the upper extremity stuff is flat out not as important as some of the other things you will learn. Most of your patients will come in with axial complaints: head, neck, thorax,lumbars , and sacrum. Because you won't be seeing as many arm complaints, patient-by-patient, it can be argued that this stuff is not as important to master. But hang on -- what about the guy who comes in with tennis elbow? A recently dislocated shoulder? A broken collar bone? Golfer's elbow? A shoulder they fell on while playing basketball? Carpal Tunnel? Tons ofsportsmed injuries? Sound familiar? These people are going to be seeing you for treatments too! As unremarkable as this stuff may be while practicing on your classmates, just wait for that first acute injury, and you'll be glad you learned it. Anyone who has had a broken or sprained upper limb can appreciate that. So now, let's talk about how to study for the practical. I'd make a chart. Start with the joints. In one column, name the joints you will need to treat. In the next column, list all of the possible "glides" you'd expect for the given anatomy. Go through normal motions, and talk through what you'd expect as you move the limb anterior, posterior, medial, lateral, etc. This is a MUST before you even begin looking at treatments. Those who jump straight to the treatments without focusing on the anatomy will end up memorizing a bunch of seemingly unrelated info, getting confused on the practical, and forgetting the info. Now that you know the joints and the motions, you can start to look at treatments. Pick ONE treatment you're comfortable with for every diagnosis. Write those down (or at minimum, the Kimberly page #) in the third column. There are no extra points for doing a complex treatment! If you think an indirect for the humerus is easier than Seven Stages of Spencer, then write that down and leave Spencer in the dust. At this point in your training, try to keep your practical treatments to the ones you are taught in class. Be able to explain all of them in terms of the glides in your second column. Why are you abducting the forearm? What happens to the radial head withpronation? Where are your hands placed as you treat? Once you master your ONE treatment you like for the practical, go back and think about the other ones. It's good to be well-rounded, and you'll need to know them for the written exam. MOST IMPORTANTLY, don't get discouraged, and don't lose interest! Yes the presentation and regurgitation can be a little uninteresting, but this stuff is important. If you do well with it, not only will you understand your anatomy better, but you'll make a ton of patients happy and your referrals will show it. Once you know the bones, you can begin thinking about treating vasculature, lymphatics, muscular, and neural complaints. As with most things, the cool stuff comes after the basics :~). This should be a good place to start. Good luck! Jonathan "If one thinks Osteopathy, one will practice Osteopathy" -Harry L. Chiles |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 31 December 2006 ) |
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