Spondylolisthesis

[S050683]

I have a recent client who came to me with pain from spondylolisthesis.  He's only 24, and he's in incredible physical shape except that he has a fracture of both transverse processes and the spinous process of his L5 vertebrae which has given rise to the spondylolisthesis.  His doctors says the fractures are old, that the only healing that will occur will be due to a fusion, and that the reason the client never noticed it before is because of the extremely fit condition of the muscles which held the processes in place.  However now he doesn't work out as much and he has back pain.  Any recommendations?  

 

[brandkast]

Spondylolisthesis

Hey there,Well the good thing is that your client is young and fit, so starting to educate him now on proper stretching and excercises to maintain proper form is a bonus. Pilates is a good one to suggest, we have a good instructor here who will do individual sessions for ppl with special needs and it would be good for him to strengthen his core to help support his lumbar area to decrease pain and spasming.  How is his posture, R.O.M and gait?  All these are important to address before setting a treatment plan.  Has he recieved concent from his Dr. to go ahead with massage?With treatment make sure he is pillowed up to his comfort and address hip flexors, glutes, IT band, hamstrings and low back. You want to stretch the shortened muscles and reduce fascial restrictions, hypertonicity and trigger points.  Give good low back stretches for him to do at home as well.Hope this helps, I know it's brief but I don't know much about your client.  Do you have Rattray's book?  This is a book every therapist should have.  Alot of information was crammed in my head the two years I went to school and beleive me alot of it went off somewhere..lol...I refer to this book to refresh my memory and help me out when I draw a blank.Good luck! Jillian, RMTCanada

 

[Joe B]

Spondylolisthesis

Jillian, what is the name of the book by Rattray?

 

[Sasafras]

Spondylolisthesis

Jillian, what is the name of the book by Rattray?

CLINICAL MASSAGE THERAPY
Understanding, Assessment and Treating over 70 Conditions
Authors...Fiona Rattray and Linda Ludwig

We had the first book in school that was written by Fiona, so everyone just refers to this as "Rattray"(in my area anyway).  The new one came out a few years ago and really is excellent.

Jillian, RMT
Canada

 

[Muayad Q]

Thought I would revive this discussion to see if anyone else had any advice. I've recently had 2 clients come to me having this condition. I had never heard of it before so didn't work too deep around their pelvis. After reading more about it, it seems that it warrants pretty deep work.

Any comments?