KOPT Services

During the patient's initial visit, the therapist performs a comprehensive evaluation that includes a history, clinical exam and review of medical reports. Next, we discuss the findings of the exam and explain the condition to the patient. Then we establish an individualized treatment plan with realistic, and patient directed, goals. On subsequent visits, patients receive a sixty minute personalized clinic treatment program with one-on-one supervision. We focus on manual techniques, therapuetic exercise and functional training to achieve the treatment goals. 

To augment the clinic treatment the patient is instructed in a detailed home exercise program which is generated each visit. A narrative report of the initial evaluation and periodic progress reports are sent to the referring physician to keep the doctor informed of the patient's progress and to maintain communication.

Our Lumbar Treatment Philosophy

The non-surgical treatment of patients with acute and subacute lower back pain (with and without radiation into the lower limb) has improved markedly in the past 30 years I’ve been practicing.  Over the past quarter century of clinical practice I have seen many new treatment techniques come into favor and ultimately fall-out of favor when they are eventually examined in large randomized clinical studies and found to be of little benefit. These ‘non-efficacious treatments” are akin to fad diets that rely heavily on testimonials, but little on scientific inquiry. However, it is this persistent research that has allowed us to determine several sub-groups of low back pain and the conservative care techniques that successfully manage them. We now realize that there are a handful of lumbar syndromes that the great majority of low back pain patients fall into.  Additionally, we have found that the specific application of research-supported treatment techniques for these lumbar syndromes results in a high success rate of improvement. I have seen many patients suffering from low back pain who have seen numerous practitioners for treatment without success only to improve remarkably quickly when the proper intervention is correctly applied. These are the results we expect, and the results we achieve. 

It is this systematic and scientific approach that we utilize at Kinetic Orthopaedic Physical Therapy to relieve lumbar pain and the frequently associated ‘sciatica’ that so many patients suffer from. We use an evidenced-based approach that has been found to be the most successful in the treatment of spinal ailments.

Our highly successful non-surgical care programs for the lumbar spine are effective for many reasons.  The careful attention to various details of the patient’s history and symptomology, the in-depth structural exam, the response to repetitive spinal motion testing, the testing of muscle strength and flexibility, the neurological exam and passive joint testing are all required to understand the primary pain generator as well as the typically associated secondary and tertiary pain generators. We also review the patient’s MRI, CT scan and X-Ray reports to correlate the structural “scans’ with the dynamic testing. This comprehensive approach allows us to design an individualized treatment plan that focuses on rapid symptom reduction and return to full prior activity.