Virginia Research Day 2021

Medical Resident Research Cl inical

10 Osteopathic Manipulation Improves Patient Pain Scale Regardless of Operator Experience

Jensen, Zachariah, DO, LMMG, PGY-3; McNichols, Courtney; Daugherty, Daniel; Judd, Trenton; Young, Amelia; Orciuolo, Jason; Sakai, Leo; Hall, Colton; Williamson, Ryan; Lockwood, Michael, DO, LUCOM; Joseph, Charles, MD, LUCOM Corresponding author: zjjensen@liberty.edu

Lynchburg Free Clinic Liberty College of Osteopathic Medicine

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) has been shown to be effective at reducing the amount of perceived pain, dependence on analgesics, and improvement in daily functionality. A criticism of prior studies has been to have not clearly differentiated the patient response to technique from the operator skills. This is a retrospective analysis of patient response to OMT treatment at the Free Clinic of Lynchburg performed by rotating third year medical students under supervision of a preceptor. Returning patients were treated by a different student doctor at each visit, eliminating the dependence of the treatment result on the operator’s personality or expertise. The techniques employed were among the standardized treatments as taught in osteopathic medical school curriculum. This study demonstrates the direct benefit of OMT on pain reduction, regardless of the level of training. The data were analyzed to compare

treatments with pain scale changes across multiple visits and body regions. Medication changes were explored to see if there was a significant change in medication usage related to patients receiving osteopathic treatments. Data was collected from patient electronic medical records via an intake form that considered the following: patient reported pain scale, location of pain, duration of complaint, OMT provided, and improvement since last visit. Our study analyzed 53 patients ages 21-70 for a total of 576 complaints with gender ratio being 1:1. Of the 576 complaints, 466 were chronic in nature. This study used a statistical model looking at visit numbers to assess long term outcomes of patients returning for further treatment. Statistics were done using an F test for visit number and the coefficient associated with the visit number.

P values <.05 were considered to be significant. At follow-up after OMT treatment, patients reported better function 53.2% of the time. In general, each additional visit for OMT lead to a highly statistically significant decrease in patient reported pain score. This provides correlative evidence that patients receiving OMT have reduced average pain levels over time. Males had a greater reduction in pain from OMT than females over time (Table 3). Male patients in all age groups besides 51-60, had a statistically significant decrease in pain upon additional visits. Males aged 31-40 show the most rapid improvement of pain. Whereas females in the same age group only showed a statistically significant improvement in pain.

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