Advocacy and Research

Opinions from Orlando

By Riva Preil

The IPPS hosted its Annual Fall Meeting on Pelvic Pain October 17-19, and I promised that I would update you on the conference. Today, I am excited to share with you the thoughts of two of our physical therapists, Dania Kafka and Mary Hughes, both of who were present at the conference.

Dania: Overall the IPPS conference was the 3 I’s – interesting, informative, and insightful. The interesting topics discussed included medical/surgical, physical therapy/musculoskeletal, and psychological/mental health. One lecture was about the multi-disciplinary approach in the treatment of pelvic pain. Another lecture provided an overview on the Vulvodynia Registry, a study that involves collecting data from various clinical sites across the United States. Other topics covered were bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction, as well as pelvic pain syndromes. The highlight for me was the post-conference course on the Movement Impairment Syndromes approach for pelvic pain/pelvic floor dysfunction given by Theresa (Tracy) Spitznagle, PT, DPT, WCS. She was awesome! Tracy introduced the theory behind Shirley Sahrmann’s movement approach. Shirley Sahrmann, PT, PhD, developed this approach for the entire body with her colleagues at Washington University Program in Physical Therapy. These syndromes are described in Dr. Sahrmann’s books, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes and Movement System Impairment Syndromes of the Extremities, Cervical and Thoracic Spine. A Movement Impairment Syndrome can be localized painful conditions or other types of symptoms arising from irritation of myofascial, periarticular, or articular tissues, as a result of mechanical trauma, most often microtrauma. Tracy discussed the theory and gave us an introduction to evaluation and treatment of pelvic pain related Movement Impairment Syndromes (i.e., hip, low back, and sacroiliac joint). It was excellent!

Mary: IPPS was a great opportunity for me to meet physicians and other pelvic floor physical therapists. I work with many of the other health care providers on a regular basis, and it was nice to finally “put a face to the names†of my colleagues. Furthermore, as physical therapists, we were taught in school the importance of an interdisciplinary team approach. It is great to see so many physicians open to the same idea, because it will enable us to provide the best plan of care for our shared patients.

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