I did not expect that I at the age of 92 years I would still teach and write about Orthopedic Medicine and Manipulative Therapy. I have seen much, and thought much, and still have much to say about the treatment of arthro-neuro-muscular conditions with manual techniques. However, I … [read more]
New book edition: Manual Mobilization of the Joints, Volume 2: Spine, 7th Edition
The 7th edition of my book, “Manual Mobilization of the Joints, Volume 2, Spine” has just gone to press in the USA. There are a few changes in the book that may be of interest to teachers and practitioners of the Kaltenborn-Evjenth Concept. Principles I have continued my … [read more]
Kaltenborn-Evjenth OMT Teacher’s Organization
An international organization for teachers of the Kaltenborn-Evjenth OMT concept was established in 2014 as a non-profit organization in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. The goals of Kaltenborn-Evjenth OMT are to enhance communication, collaboration and comradeship between all K-E instructors, to update and standardize teaching materials and activities of those using … [read more]
Direct patient access for physical therapists in Norway
I have long argued that Norwegian physical therapists with advanced post-professional training in Orthopedic Manipulative Therapy, are qualified to practice independently and to serve as the first point of patient entry into the health care system. However, current graduates of Norway’s physical therapy educational programs who have not … [read more]
Reproducibility of specific manual mobility tests in the spine
The theory behind Orthopedic Manipulative Therapy for the spine, is that patients with more or less diminished mobility between two individual vertebrae, with pain that can be provoked upon movement at the vertebral segment, can with specific manual treatment, become symptom‐free or have their condition improved and normal … [read more]
Recommendation to abandon rotatory joint techniques in manipulative therapy
I have not used a rotatory technique in my practice nor taught a rotatory manipulation in over 15 years. By 1979, I no longer taught rotatory techniques for the extremity joints, and in 1991 I stopped teaching rotatory techniques in the spine. I came to these decisions based … [read more]
Limitations of evidence-based treatment and research in manipulative therapy
In an ideal world treatment decisions would be based on the evidence revealed by clinical trials. However, many variables affect accurate determinations of cause and effect in arthro-neuro-muscular disorders. The validity of clinical trials in the manual therapies is confounded by many factors. Valid measurement tools for manual … [read more]
Kaltenborn-Evjenth OMT meeting announced, Zaragoza, Spain, September 11 – 13, 2015
Olaf Evjenth and I, both in our 90’s, announced our retirement from teaching at an international Kaltenborn-Evjenth (K-E) teacher’s meeting in Gran Canary Island, Spain on January 10, 2014. To ensure the future quality of OMT education associated with our names, we requested that the most recent developments … [read more]
Joint manipulation in physical therapy schools
It is critically important that joint manipulation be taught in physical therapy schools. Some physical therapy schools omit manipulative training, and this fact is taken by some courts of law as justification to prevent physical therapists from delivering manipulative treatment. Over the past century there have been repeated … [read more]
OMT schools of thought: What’s in a name?
Perhaps the time has come for OMT practitioners to cease naming treatments according to a school of thought. The principles of treatment are far more important than the name of the practitioner who first developed the technique. It is not important that a technique, for example, was originally … [read more]