Orthopaedic Medicine

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Orthopedic Medicine

The term "orthopaedic medicine" comes from Dr. J. Cyriax, M.D., M.R.C.P. He has devoted his entire life developing a diagnostic method that, because of its basic simplicity, can be considered as genial, and in which history and clinical examination regain their fullest rights .

Symptoms and signs are interpreted and catalogued via 'patterns'.
A pattern is a particular functional behaviour of a disorder or a group of disorders.
For most of the disorders, a local, direct, efficient and economical treatment can be offered.
For a long time, the entire system has proven its efficiency in everyday's practice and it is now, for many doctors and physiotherapist, a most valuable asset in their diagnostic and therapeutic set of instruments.

However, although the techiques are simple, for any treatment to be successful, accurate diagnosis is vital and considerable detail must be given on the correct performance of each therapeutic technique . .

An electronic on-line course may thus be useful in providing repeated training of both clinical reasoning and technical skills.

Dr. L. Ombregt

Let me first introduce myself.
My name is Ludwig Ombregt.
I qualified in medicine at the University of Ghent in 1976 and subsequently started a family practice in a rural setting in Belgium.
Very quickly I became disappointed in my clinical knowledge of Orthopaedics. In particular the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue lesions was a total blank to me.
Then I met Dr Cyriax in London in 1977. His logical system of clinical examination designed to elicit accurate diagnosis impressed me. I took courses and started to use his system in my own practice. The obtained results encouraged me to take more courses and finally I became a qualified teacher in 1981.
Subsequently I started teaching his system: with a few colleagues in Belgium and Cyriax himself in Rochester NY, Indianapolis, the Scandinavian countries and France. After his death in 1985 I continued his work and extended the courses to Germany and Switzerland. In the meantime my family practice gradually changed into an orthopaedic one (1985).
Ever since the beginning I have been using Cyriax’s system in my daily clinical work but added some complementary clinical experience.
All this resulted in the publication of “A System Of Orthopaedic Medicine”, published by Saunders in 1995. This reference book has been reprinted twice and a second edition was published november 2002.
During my teaching career, I discovered that Orthopaedic Medicine is still as neglected a section of medical education as it was when I was a trainee and that most general practitioners still cannot properly make a clinical orthopaedic diagnosis. It is my personal belief that the combination of a high incidence of orthopaedic lesions, inadequate education in basic clinical skills, and the availability of many high-tech examination procedures contributes more and more to the escalating costs of health care. All this encouraged me putting my knowledge of Orthopaedic Medicine and its teaching on a series of CD-roms.
Two years ago I started my first multimedia project: ‘The shoulder, Examination Diagnosis and Treatment’ which was first published in Dutch and subsequently also in French and English.
The second CD “The elbow “ was published in december 2002
The third project “Wrist” is in the pipeline.

Dr. J.H. Cyriax 1904-1985

° London 1904 ,
Went to University College School Gonville, Caius College Cambridge and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School London
Qualified in Medicine in 1929
Proceeded to MD(Cantab) in 1938; MRCP in 1954; awarded the Heberden Prize in 1943.
From 1949 to 1969 consultant in Orthopaedic Medicine at St. Thomas Hospital London
Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in 1980
From 1975: Visiting Professor of Orthopaedic Medicine to the University of Rochester, New York

"Father of Orthopaedic Medicine"
Dr, J.H.Cyriax was the first to study thorougly and systematiclly soft tissue lesions of the locomotor system.
Soon after qualifying he became house surgeon in the department of orthopaedic surgery at St. Thomas's Hospital , an experience that showed him clearly the need for an equivalent medical department. He coined the term -orthopaedic medicine," invented the specialty, and became its first consultant and most famous practitioner
Cyriax decided to devote his life to this problem and started by rejecting all the old "non-system" of examination. He relegated palpation to a merely confirmatory role once the correct tissue had been incriminated, and set to work to develop a system of examination based on testing the function of all the components of the soft-tissue moving parts.

His writings:

Textbook of Orthopaedic Medicine volume I and II ; 1947/ Eight edition in 1982
Osteopathy and Manipulation 1949
The Slipped Disc 1980
Cervical Spondylosis 1971
Manipulation Past and Present 1975
Illustrated Manual of Orthopaedic Medicine 1983

14:56:53 05/09/2010