Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome results in a feeling of numbness and/or pain in the hands and arms caused by compression of the median nerve. It is more common post-pregnancy when hormonal changes may cause fluid retention in the arms.

Osteopathic examination of the patient:
During the case history the osteopath should try and discover the factors contributing to the problem. Posture at work or whilst feeding the baby may be putting pressure on the wrist, shoulders, ribs and neck all of which may reduce the bodies ability to drain the fluid back to the heart from the arm. Questions about the patient's endocrine function are important especially thyroid gland as many cases of hypothyroidism have been known to cause carpal tunnel syndrome.


The osteopath observes the patient standing paying attention to spinal curves, neck and shoulders looking for areas of compression or tension. Active movements will include movements of the neck, shoulder, elbow and wrists – again looking for areas of tension and reduced movement.

Check for goiter.

A full examination including neurological examination (reflexes, power and sensation) as well as checking the pulses.

The osteopath carefully palpates the ribs, cervical spine, pectoral girdle, clavicle, shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers noting areas of tension.

Osteopathic treatment:

I prefer to work distally, beginning at the neck and shoulder girdle – releasing any soft-tissue tension around the cervical spine, ribs, pectoral girdle and shoulder. This is particularly important not just to relieve any brachial tension around the neck but drainage into the thoracic duct that may be compressed by the clavicle. The osteopath relieves tension distal to the area of pain in order to make room for the fluid to drain (see post on glue ear).

From the shoulder girdle the osteopath examines and treats the soft tissues of the arm, elbow and forearm. When the osteopath treats the wrist he aims to relieve restriction of the soft-tissues around the carpel bones, phalanges and the palmer aponeurosis. The osteopath should try and be gentle and accurate in this area and as usual, knowledge of the anatomy especially the nerves and the carpal bones is invaluable.

Finally the osteopath can introduce efflerrage in the direction away from the wrist to encourage a return of fluid to heart.

Gentle work to the throat, scalenes, oesophagus and hyoid bone to improve thyroid function can be included when appropriate.

The patient should be given advice on posture whilst breast-feeding or work environment to avoid flexing the wrist for too long and also reducing any local pressure on the wrist. The patient should be encouraged to have a blood test if hypothyroidism is suspected.

Radiculopathy and Radicular Pain - its relevance to the Osteopath

There is a subtle difference between radiculopathy and radicular pain and understanding the pathophysiology of both can help improve the osteopath's diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

Radiculopathy is the term that describes the neurological state of blocked axon conduction in a nerve or a nerve root. If a sensory axon is blocked then it results in numbness. If a motor axon is blocked then it results in muscle weakness. A blocked axon normally occurs as a result of compression or ischemia of the affected axon. The most common causes of radiculopathy are vertical subluxation of a vertebrae and osteophytes from a disc.

The osteopath must realise that radiculopathy is a STATE OF NEUROLOGICAL LOSS and it does NOT cause pain neither in the back nor in the limbs.

If the osteopath finds that the patient describes pain as well as radiculopathy (neurological loss) then the osteopath should be aware that the mechanism of radiculopathy may not necessarily be the same as the mechanism of pain.

Radicular pain on the other hand is pain that arises out of IRRITATION of a spinal nerve or a nerve root.

So, at the risk of sounding repetitive:

Radiculopathy – neurological state (weakness or numbness) caused by conduction of the axon being blocked.

Radicular Pain – Pain caused by nerve irritation.

Radicular pain may or may not occur with radiculopathy.

Radicular pain is sharp and shooting in quality and it travels down the limb along a band of no more than 2 inches. This is different from somatic referred pain which is more constant in nature, poorly localised and aching. It is important that the osteopath be aware of the differences.

A good example of radicular pain is sciatica. Sciatica is caused by the irritation of the sciatic nerve or one of its roots. However the term sciatica should only be used to describe a case when the pain is indeed sharp, shooting and is of 2 inches in width down the leg. The osteopath should clearly make a distinction between this and somatic referred pain which, as mentioned above is broad, achey and poorly localised.

The single most common cause of radicular pain is a disc herniation. The pathophysiology of this is still unclear - whether the nerve irritation is caused by an autoimmune inflammatory response from the nucleus pulposis or from ischemia.

Thus the osteopath should use the above information to make a diagnosis and treatment plan. The osteopath must be direct in questioning and in examination of the patient in order to be able to distinguish between a state of neurological loss and between pain. Once the osteopath has distinguished between these he should further examine the parameters and quality of the pain to distinguish between radicular and somatic pain. This way his diagnosis will lean more towards foraminal stenosis - vertical subluxation of the vertebrae or osteophytes if radiculopathy is suspected and towards a disc herniation if radicular pain is suspected.

Piriformis Syndrome

I have treated at least 3 cases of piriformis syndrome in the past 18 months that had been misdiagnosed as disc-herniations and were due to have spinal surgery. The key to diagnosing piriformis syndrome is using a basic osteopathic tenant – listening to the patient.

The osteopaths questions need to be focused and gleaning of information. The basic osteopathic case-history questions are sufficient. The most revealing questions are; cause of onset and aggravating and relieving factors. Together with a good osteopathic active and passive examination the osteopath can save a patient from taking increased doses of medication, cortisone injections and at the very least the surgeon's knife.

A point that may be important to the new graduate of osteopathy is that indeed in each case that I saw with piriformis syndrome either a disc herniation was present on MRI or there was a case of disc thinning on X-ray. Whilst imaging has a vital use in today's medical world there is always the danger that it will be a sunbstitute for good case history. The osteopath must never rely on someone else's diagnosis.

The main diagnosis between which piriformis syndrome needs to be differentiated is sciatica caused by nerve root compression as both have similar symptoms of radiation down the back of the leg. In pirifomis syndrome the sciatic nerve is compressed by the piriformis muscle as the nerve passes through it on its journey into the leg.

My treatment plan is to first approach the problem globally. I start at the feet and work my way up the body to the cranium paying particular attention to the function of the sacro-illiac joints bilaterally and their relationship to the lumber spine, pelvis and surrounding muscles. Don't be afraid to give due attention to the neck, dorsal spine, ribs and dorso-lumbar junction. Remember that these all exert strong forces through the sacrum and pelvis and may call upon pirifomis to secure the stability of the area.

The osteopath can cause significant changes by applying sustained inhibition to the piriformis attachments either by the sacrum or the hip, with or without muscle-energy resisted movement. The osteopath must of course pay due care and attention not to aggravate the sciatic nerve further by watching the patient and using his ostoepathic palpatory skills.

Frozen Shoulder - Adhesive Capsulitis

Frozen shoulder can make an osteopath feel "disarmed" in terms of what treatment approach to take. However, a thorough knowledge of anatomy, a careful examination of the shoulder and reasonable expectations regarding prognosis are the key to helping the patient.

The diagnosis "Frozen shoulder" is often banded about as a diagnosis whenever there is shoulder limitation avoiding an accurate diagnosis. Much information is available on the internet for the diagnostic pointers of frozen shoulder but the most significant ones are reduced range of movement in external rotation, abduction, flexion and finally internal rotation in that order. Reduction in movement may not be associated with pain and there may not even have been a precipitating trauma.

Frozen shoulder is also known as adhesive capsulitis because the two surfaces of the capsule of the shoulder stick to one another. Instead of relying on the traditional diagnosis, for osteopaths it can be more helpful to develop a broader picture of the dysfunction of the shoulder and its associated joints and muscles and build a diagnostic story - whilst keeping the conventional diagnosis in mind.

The patient is observed standing and the relative positioning of both gleno-humeral joints is noted. The osteopath should analyse whether the problematic shoulder is retracted or protracted, superior or inferior relative to the healthy shoulder? Observation includes active movements - observing the ranges of movement in all direction and paying particular attention to the scapulothoracic rhythm - the relationship between movement of the scapula relative to the humerus.

Osteopaths emphasise the importance of the body's function as a unit and so osteopathic examination must extend to observation of the pelvis and of course beyond. At the risk of stating the obvious, the shoulder is attached to the dorsal spine via the dorsal erector spine and ribs, the dorsal spine sits on the lumber spine and the lumber spine rests on the sacral base which is firmly lodged in the pelvis. Furthermore, latisimus dorsi attaches from the pelvic rim onto the medial inferior border of the scapula and therefore the pelvis and spine must be examined and treated in order to treat the frozen shoulder comprehensively.

In my opinion, when treating frozen shoulder the osteopath approaches the treatment in 3 ways. Firstly, treatment of the local musculature of the shoulder to improve the scapulothoracic rhythm with special emphasis on teres minor. Next I like to work on the more distal areas; that is, treatment of the dorsal spine, lumber spine, neck, ribs and pelvis. Finally, once I feel I have prepared the body, I like to work directly into the capsule using a form of muscle-energy. I find this an especially affective technique assuming the patient is not so acute so as to be unable to tolerate it. With the patient side-lying and the osteopath standing at the head of the table the osteopath brings the patient's uppermost shoulder into flexion passively (sometimes the osteopath can add a little adduction by asking the patient to fully relax the shoulder – this increases the tension in the capsule and the arm drops towards the table slightly). At the end of range the osteopath asks the patient to try and bring the arm back to neutral (in the direction of extension in other words). The osteopath resists this movement until the osteopath requests that the patient gradually relax the shoulder (after about 5-10 seconds). The osteopath increases the stretch gently and repeats 2-3 times. The osteopath can apply this muscle-energy technique to any of the directions in which the patient is restricted.


The body's natural response to most shoulder injuries is for the surrounding muscles to contract in a protective manner. This is useful in terms of splinting the joint for protection but can interfere with the healing process by reducing the blood supply as the head of the humerus is pulled up into the glenoid fossa. Contraction of the rotator-cuff especially supraspinatus leads to the head of the humerus moving superiorly and buttressing the acromiom process of the scapula instead of sliding smoothly under it which can lead to further soft-tissue irritation. The osteopath should therefore encourage the head of the humerus to move inferiorly using techniques such as traction and distraction in concert with soft tissue massage to the rotator-cuff muscles. Any form of soft tissue contraction around the shoulder, clavicle, pectoral muscles and scapula may equally restrict lymphatic drainage from the shoulder into the thoracic duct as a result of compression between the clavicle and first rib, so due attention should be paid by the astute osteopath to these areas.

It is important for the osteopath explain 2 things from the outset. Firstly, frozen shoulder takes time, maybe even a few months but a better prognosis is expected than without treatment. Secondly, the patient may not see a change for the first 3-5 treatments and so should not be disheartened by this. It is worth using a gomiometer to show the patient the increased range of movement as the restricted shoulder is often forgotten once an improvement is achieved.

Glue Ear (Chronic Seromucinous Otitis)

Glue ear is a condition that worries many parents as it can lead to a temporary hearing loss in infants. It is a condition characterized by a build up of fluid in the middle ear which drains poorly.

The condition usually starts with an infection in the throat leading to an obstruction at the point where the nasopharynx meets the auditory canal. For the auditory canal to function efficiently it must be well ventilated. When poorly ventilated as in the case of obstruction caused by the infection, the cilia (the hairs that help drain fluid out of the ear) become paralysed and there is fluid build up. The fluid becomes increasingly thick and sticky – hence the name "glue-ear".

The osteopath must start by observing the infant – the face, the relationship of the mouth, nose and ears. Do they seem squashed together and is there anything in the case-history that may indicate trauma to this area during birth? The osteopath gently palpates the chest, upper ribs and neck as well as getting a comprehensive picture of the health of the tissues throughout the body. Whenever dealing with drainage the osteopath always begins by treating the more distal areas first in order to make a space in which to drain. There is little point in draining the auditory canal if the neck and chest are congested.

Once the osteopath has attended to restrictions in the hips, spine and chest, the osteopath gently approaches the neck observing any restrictions at the cranial base. The osteopath pays particular attention to the function of the temporal bone in which sits the auditory canal. The osteopath checks the relationship of the temporal bone to the frontal bone and the occiput. Gently the osteopath introduces a pumping action bilaterally to the glabella (frontal bone) and the mastoid process (temporal bone). The osteopath can also introduce a gentle springing action to the manubrium under which lies the thymus gland to stimulate the infant's immune system.

Remember that infants respond quicker than adults and one should be aware of over-treating. It is a gentle approach with a light but accurate touch.
"Find it, fix it and leave it alone"