Who would benefit most from attending ‘The complete and advanced lumbar spine and pelvis’?

Physiotherapists with advanced skills and those regularly treating lumbar spine and pelvic girdle pain disorders will benefit most from attending.

The course is designed for the more experienced clinician, those wanting to be challenged and those challenged by complex presentations.

Tell us a bit about the program and the presenters.

The course is designed to extend participants’ clinical reasoning in advanced assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment of the lumbar spine and pelvis.

The program integrates the latest research within the current clinical context, challenges and complexity of low back pain and pelvic girdle disorders.

Participants will be engaged by presentations from leading experts that build on clinicians’ existing knowledge and skills using an interactive clinical reasoning approach.

All the presenters are Specialist Physiotherapists (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists).

Participants will hear from both musculoskeletal and continence and women’s health physiotherapists who are active researchers, educators or both and who represent the cutting edge of physiotherapy practice, implementation of best practice and clinical leadership.

What are the major contributing factors to complex lumbar spine and pelvic girdle pain disorders?

Lumbar spine and pelvic girdle pain disorders may be considered complex due to their commonly persistent course; the interaction of multiple contributing factors such as genetics, epigenetics, physical function, work activities, mental health and gender; and the social, cognitive and cultural perspectives that influence people’s experience of pain and treatment.

They may also be considered complex by physiotherapists due to the vast variation in presentation of these pain disorders, the difficulties in discrimination between hip, lumbar spine and pelvic girdle contributions and the many options for treatment that exist for clinicians to choose from.

Hannah Graetz is one of the presenters of the course, which focuses on the lumbar spine and pelvic girdle. 

‘The complete and advanced lumbar spine and pelvis’ will address these complexities and support participants to develop an astute clinical reasoning process, which involves adapting quality evidence to the person’s context using a genuinely collaborative problem-solving approach.

How is pelvic pain affected by pregnancy?

Pregnancy is a major inciting event for both low back pain and pelvic girdle pain in women.

Pregnancy contributes in many ways to the development of musculoskeletal pain disorders via hormonal sensitisation, mechanical alterations and psychosocial influences.

Many women who experience low back pain or pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy go on to experience persistent pain postpartum and are more susceptible to the development of chronic pain over their life span.

How physiotherapists assess and treat both disorders during pregnancy is integral not only to a woman’s future musculoskeletal health, but equally to her general health during her pregnancy and birth experience.

What are the key takeaways participants are likely to gain from this course?

Participants should expect to gain a critical perspective on advancements in assessment and treatment approaches to the management of disorders of the lumbar spine and pelvis.

Through interactive clinical scenarios, participants will enhance their ability to assess, differentially diagnose and treat acute and chronic low back and pelvic girdle pain.

Participants can also expect to refine their understanding and application of musculoskeletal practice for effective management of low back and pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy.

‘The complete and advanced lumbar spine and pelvis’ will run from Friday 4 March to Sunday 6 March 2022, 8 am – 5 pm, in North Ryde, New South Wales. Click here for more information and to register.

>> Hannah Graetz, FACP, is a clinical lead physiotherapist at The Royal Hospital for Women Sydney, a postgraduate continence and women’s health physiotherapy clinical educator at Curtin University and a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney.