Sensible Sciatica with Adam Dobson, pt. 1

The Sciatica Podcast

Thanks for reading the 30th edition of my sciatica newsletter. This newsletter tracks my research as I write a book about lumbar radicular pain!

I must say things have been pretty quiet on the book front this week! In the time I’ve had to work on it, I’ve mostly just been wading through the literature. It seems like on any topic there’s really only a few key papers that give you most of what you need. But you have to read all of them to find out which are the key ones! It’s slow going at times…

Anyway, this week I want to share with you a podcast I recorded with Adam Dobson, a physiotherapist from the North of England with a keen interest in spinal pain (and author of this patient info leaflet).

I would describe Adam’s approach to assessment and treatment as pragmatic and sensible!

I think our conversation will be particularly interesting for people who are used to assessing and treating people with low back related leg pain, and know a bit about the basics of radicular pain, but still feel like they’re trying to put the pieces together to come up with an approach that works for them and their patients.

This first podcast, part one of two, focuses on assessment including referred pain, vascular masqueraders and other peripheral neuropathies!

At the end of this email, I have put some links to some of the papers and resources that Adam mentions.

Lastly I just want to say a huge thank you to Adam, not only for taking the time to talk but also for putting himself out there to talk about his practice!

Til next time!

Tom

Papers and resources mentioned in this podcast:

* Adam refers to Schmid and Tampin’s schema for understanding low-back related leg pain

* Here’s Adams extension of that schema, where he’s cast the net a bit wider (if this is too small, click here to see a bigger version)

* Here’s Adam’s summary of the ABPI test

* On referred pain, Adam mentions Kellgren, McCall on facet pain, and Lesher on hip pain.

* On entrapment neuropathies, Bowley and Doughty

* The BMJ paper and infographic on peripheral artery disease

* Mathieson on pregabalin

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomjesson.substack.com