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 campaign to bring “joint manipulation” terminology to the forefront.
    In the early editions of this book series, I avoided the term “joint manipulation” and instead used the more broad term “joint mobilization”, in order to gain favor as a textbook in universities and schools. However, joint manipulation has always been an important part of my treatment concept. The use of “mobilization” and “manipulation” terminology is often political and varies in different countries depending upon licensure, regulations, and turf wars between practitioners in various disciplines (e.g., osteopathy, chiropractic, physical therapy, medical doctors, etc.), all who claim the historical right to use these techniques. Now that I am 94 years old, I no longer care about these politics. I offer my techniques to all skilled practitioners of manual medicine, regardless their professional discipline.
  • Movement graphs and definitions for end-feel, mobilization, manipulation, and PMST (pre-manipulative stretch tests) have been clarified and updated (see page 39, 45, 125).
  • Neural mechanosensitivity concepts (formerly called “neural tension signs”) were updated based up recent research.

Techniques

  • There has been very little change overall in my techniques, other than some minor corrections (e.g., right vs. left hand, etc.) and some enhanced descriptions (e.g., now says “stabilize with your body and hand” when it used to say “stabilize with your hand.”). Interestingly, the errors in “right” vs “left” have been there for years (Thoracic fig 20; Cervical fig 11, 30d), but no one ever mentioned it and I didn’t notice, as it has been some years since I have been in the classroom. We had a non-PT edit the book this time, and he was the one who noticed the errors. I wonder, do students and teachers actually use the techniques descriptions for teaching/learning anymore?
  • Nerve testing techniques were updated based upon recent research.

History

  • The history of OMT (Orthopedic Manipulative Therapy) and the Nordic OMT Concept is gone. This history will be combined with the history section in the next edition of Volume 1, Extremities, to be released next year.

DVD

  • The techniques DVD will be available as a free online download. There will be no physical DVD disk included with the book purchase. The same DVD can be used with both the 6th and 7th editions. We made this change because many modern-day computers no longer have a DVD player, and the DVD technology is dated. To change the media format to interactive online media would be too costly an investment.