Doug,
Yes, I do see your point about US. I guess I continue to use it regardless
of the evidence for the old clients who believe that the machine with the
gel gets rid off their pain :D Even if it is just placebo, if it is what the
patient wants and makes the patients feel better, then I am not going to
ignore this effect. Apart from this, I do not use it in my other patients
unless it is specifically requested.
U/S has been used for a long time, but has only come under strict and close
scrutiny in recent days, and I think we can say this to be true for most
physiotherapy techniques. It would be interesting however to see
replications of those studies published in physical therapy 2001 on the
effects of U/S in the near future. As we all know, it is a study's
reproducibility that strengthens its evidence.
The article that I mentioned in Manual Therapy November 2001 is entitled
"Evidence-based practice - getting a grip and finding a balance." One of the
statements made were:
"We have a lot of evidence to gather, a lot of ground to make up.
Importantly, we must avoid the "evidence-based practice technique syndrome"
where every patient with a certain diagnostic label, for example low back
pain... if clinicians do this... clinical reasoning skills will be lost and
clinicians themselves will become little more than technicians who can be
replaced by a cheaper workforce."
Henry***
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