I thought I would post a clinical case of a recent patient (I have permission from the parents).
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Two weeks ago, this nine year old boy presented with right knee pain that had been present for about one year. This is a long time  for a child to have knee pain and initially set off my alarm bells of concern, however the family had visited their doctor and an x-ray of the knee had been done which was clear and blood tests were clear. I still had concerns regarding hip pathology (as this can refer pain to the knee) until I had a look at the child's back...

Now I am not sure if it is obvious to everyone, but if you look at the left hand photo, (which was taken on initial examination, before any treatment), you may be able to see some asymmetries. The left shoulder and shoulder blade are higher and the right hip is higher. You can see a reddish mark on the back due to a recent fall onto a tree branch.

Without getting complicated , this child has a scoliosis (which is an 'S' or 'C' shaped curve to their spine). The most common type is called idiopathic, which means the cause is unknown.

In my experience all the children I have treated over the years with idiopathic scoliosis have had a considerable cranial base strain (which can start in-utero, during birth, or from trauma to the head as a child). This cranial base strain can cause strain in the spine and shoulders and ribs due to the extensive muscle attachments between these structures.

 The right knee pain was being caused by extreme tightness of the right thigh muscles, due to the pelvic unleveling and cranial base (head) unleveling. The parents had been massaging the right thigh muscles daily for months to try to help the knee but had not been able to make them relax. This is because these muscles were not the cause of the problem but were responding to the strains higher up.

A very gentle osteopathic treatment with the patient lying on their back, using cranial, balanced ligamentous and biodynamic osteopathic technique approaches was used to treat the head, neck, back and pelvis. There was immediate  improvement as you can see from the middle photo. The right thigh muscles eased immediately which started to take the pressure off the right knee.

Melanie Young
Reg Osteopath 
​B.A., B.App.Sc.(Clin. Sc.), B.Osteo.Sc. MONZ
​Director City Osteopaths

​www.cityosteopaths.co.nz
​#osteopathyawarenessweek