Online Courses

For new graduate physiotherapists or those who are starting to learn management of back pain patients. 

This course teaches practical hands-on assessment and management of people with LBP. Learn how to identify which patients you can manage yourself with good quality basic care, and identify those patients who need more advanced knowledge/experience or referral for specialist advice or intervention.
Covered in the course:

• Red flags

• Clinical history

• Physical examination of LBP

• Simple LBP treatment

For physiotherapists who have some experience and knowledge of assessment and treatment of patients with primary symptoms of back and / or referred lower limb pain.

 

Although Back Pain 101 is not a pre-requisite, it is recommended for recent graduates or undergraduates. 

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Back Pain 201 opens the door for lumbar spine and pelvic diagnostics and treatment selection based on a broad perspective that includes pathoanatomy, neurophysiology and the psychosocial dimensions by teaching you the essentials of a comprehensive clinical history and physical examination. 

By the end of this course you will be able to confidently identify:

• Mechanical discogenic pain.

• Radicular syndromes.

• Spinal stenosis.

• Sacroiliac joint pain.

• Hip and buttock pain sources. 

Introduction to Advanced Diagnosis and Management.

This is the first lesson in the 300-series. This course is a pre-requisite for other lessons in the 300 series. Back Pain 300 introduces you to an advanced level of clinical diagnostics and treatments for the various sources and causes of back and referred lower limb pain.  In the course Mark challenges the notion of ‘non-specific’ low back pain and shows you how to identify specific subgroups of the back pain population using a simple and structured clinical assessment supported by advanced diagnostic techniques. 

 

What is covered in this course?

This short course shows you how to achieve a clinical diagnosis using the history and physical examination, and highly selective use of technology. 

You will also gain the scientific background needed to understand how the anatomy, pathology and biomechanics of the anterior column influence sources of pain posterior to the intervertebral disc. We look specifically at the pathology and anatomy of the intervertebral disc, and investigate the concept and validation of discogenic pain before proceeding onto exploration of other parts all the lumbar spine and pelvis in other Back Pain 300 courses. 

The course consists of two chapters that cover pathoanatomy and biomechanics, and introduces the concept of discogenic pain and its diagnosis and management.  The course covers:

• pathoanatomy and biomechanics of the anterior column

• sources and causes of low back and referred lower limb pain

• the concept of discogenic pain

• anatomy and pathology of the intervertebral disc including normal age-related changes

• pain centralisation

• principles of clinical diagnosis of LBP

• diagnosis by subtraction for subgrouping people with LBP to guide treatment.

Diagnosis & Treatment of Mechanical Discogenic Pain.

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This course covers the basic patho-anatomy of the anterior column and mechanical discogenic pain and teaches you how to identify those patients who are likely to do well with a mechanical approach to treatment. You will be shown how to assess and treat this patient group and how to guide them to functional recovery. 

What You Will Learn:

In this course, you will learn:

• the theoretical and pathoanatomical foundation of the concept of mechanical discogenic pain. 

• how the concept of the dynamic disc model relates to clinical presentations, including acute pain-related deformities such as the acute lateral shift. 

• a theoretical basis for the phenomena of centralisation and directional preference

• how to perform and interpret a standardised repeated-movements assessment, adapted from the McKenzie (MDT) method to identify those likely to respond to this approach, 

• how to treat this subgroup of patients during a painful episode, and guide them through rehabilitation to functional recovery. 

• How to use the McKenzie (MDT) repeated movements assessment to identify the Centralisation and Directional Preference Phenomena

• How treat the rapidly reversible acute lumbar deformites

  • The Lateral Shift​

  • The Acute lumbar kyhosis

  • The Acute Fixed lumbar lordosis​

Lumbar Radicular Syndromes

Pre-requisites:  

• Back Pain 300: Introduction to Advanced Diagnosis and Management 

• Back Pain 301: Mechanical Discogenic Pain

 

Who is this course suitable for?

This course is suitable for clinicians with some postgraduate experience and an interest in diagnosing and treating subcategories of radicular pain and radiculopathy. It is especially valuable for physiotherapists working with or triaging for spinal surgeons.

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The most common cause of lower limb radicular pain with or without radiculopathy is lumbar disc protrusion, herniation, extrusion or sequestration. 

What you will learn in this course.

This course uses a thorough and comprehensive reasoning process to guide clinicians from initial presentation to discharge regardless of pain severity or stage of presentation. 

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The course covers:

• Natural history of disc hernation from epidemiology to spontaneous remission.

• Diagnosis of radicular pain and radiculopathy using clinical findings from the history and physical examination, and magnetic resonance imaging. 

• Patient selection for surgical vs non-surgical treatment, and orthopaedic referral criteria (lumbar discectomy). 

• Peri and post-operative management and rehabilitation management using exercise, posture correction and loading progressions are covered in some detail, but is not prescriptive.

• The adherent nerve root and its association with epidural scarring is explored. Diagnosis and management is covered in some detail.

 

You will learn:

• Differential diagnosis of somatic referred vs radicular pain and radiculopathy

• Imaging indications and guidelines

• The role of injections and interventional procedures

• Non-surgical treatment pathways

• Surgical indications for lumbar discectomy

• Post-operative rehabilitation following discectomy

• Complications and confounders to diagnosis & treatment

Diagnosis and Treatment of sacroiliac joint & pelvic girdle pain

• Anatomy and Biomechanics of the pelvic girdle and sacroiliac joints 

• SIJ Dysfunction. SIJ tests validity & reliability 

• Diagnosis of Pelvic Girdle and Sacroiliac Joint Pain 

• Treatment of Pelvic Girdle and Sacroiliac Joint Pain 

• Case Studies 

Diagnosis and Treatment of lumbar facetogenic pain.

• Clinically relevant anatomy & biomechanics of the lumbar facet joints.

• Detail on the clinical history taking with patients known to have lumbar facetogenic pain.

• Mark Laslett’s distillation and synthesis of the relevant published literature on the diagnosis of lumbar facetogenic pain

• Clinical reasoning from the history and physical examination derived clinical prediction rules (CPRs) that enables the clinician to predict the outcome of screening facet joint blocks.

• Evidence underpinning non-surgical treatment interventions for lumbar facetogenic pain.

• The gaps in the published evidence regarding treatment of lumbar facetogenic pain, and suggested research themes needing urgent attention.

• Case studies