Diagnostic Approaches to Low Back Pain - Comparing Maitland, McKenzie and Movement Impairment Syndromes

 Students at Nottingham University are currently creating this page. Please check back in January 2014 to see the finished result.

 Introduction: What this page is about

Physiotherapists use a range of theories and techniques to assess and diagnose low back pain - the most used are those of Geoffrey Maitland (mobilisations), Robin McKenzie (derangement, dysfunction) and Shirley Sahrmann (movement impairment).

Determining which is most appropriate to use, in what circumstances, and with which patients, can be confusing, especially for students and newly qualified clinicians. For full details on each approach, please see the links above for the relevant Physio-pedia pages.

This page aims to give clarity to each of the systems, to suggest their pros and cons, and compare them using a generic case study, so that the reader can begin to make up their own mind, based on the evidence and the experiences of practising professionals.

Suggested sections (please comment on):

• Basic concepts, techniques and any controversy 

• Relevance, the usual patient that this suits?
  

• Anatomy - diagrams, pics etc to illustrate the concept?
  
• Pros
• Cons
• Any discussions you've found online / elsewhere that have a good debate going!

• Further resources:
  
• Further reading:
  

• References

Suggested things to include (please add to): 

1. Case Study to suit all approaches
   
2. interviews with proponents of each style- to gain pros and cons and interesting viewing