The effect of visceral osteopathy on small intestine and colon function
Item
- Title
- The effect of visceral osteopathy on small intestine and colon function
- Author(s)
- Douglas Rachel
- Abstract
- Visceral Osteopathic Techniques are used by some osteopaths in Bowel Disorders, especially where Functional Dysfunction of the Bowel is evident. There are no published clinical studies which have established the effect of specific visceral techniques on bowel function. The study aimed to determine whether external mobilisation of the small and large intestines along with their associated structures produced a meaningful and statistical significant change to the bowel function of normal, undiagnosed, asymptomatic subjects, to analyse and assess the role of visceral osteopathy in the treatment of Functional Bowel Disorders. 27 male subjects within the same Body Mass Index Range, were categorised according to their 'Total Bowel Motion Score'. Subjectswere selected from the college student body. They acted as their own controls. Each subject received a series of 2 visceral osteopathic treatments each week over a period of 3 weeks. These treatments were placed out to allow continuity and consisted of aset combination of 6 visceral techniques conducted within a 10-minute time scale. The subjects were each given a self-designed Bowel Symptom Scale Questionnaire to assess their bowel motion and ultimately their gut transit. Questionnaires were given four times: before the treatment, after the 2nd treatment, after the 4th treatment and lastly 6th treatment at the end of the study. Percentages of change and 95% confidence interval for the population was analysed descriptively with evaluation of anedoctal information, and perceived change in bowel motion. A chi-squared test was calculated which found these changes to the bowel habit of the subjects described not to be significant, (X²= 0.00357, p<0.9523). The visceral techniques used in this pilot study were demonstrated to be safe as an individual entity, but discrepancy between some of the descriptive and statistical analysis made conclusions concerning any benefit in using these visceral osteopathic techniques in the treatment of Functional Bowel Disorders hard to comment on. It therefore was concluded that male subjects with no previous diagnosed Functional Bowel Dysfunction did not experience a meaningful change in bowel motion i.e. gut transit after receiving a series of 6 visceral osteopathic treatments of the small intestine and colon over a period of 3 weeks, compared to bowel habits prior to treatment.
- presented at
- British College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Date Accepted
- 2002
- Date Submitted
- 1.11.2003 00:00:00
- Type
- undergraduate_project
- Language
- English
- Number of pages
- 102
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 12992
- Inst-Identifier
- 1076
- Keywords
- Osteopathy,Colon,Intestines,Obesity
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Douglas Rachel, “The effect of visceral osteopathy on small intestine and colon function”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 4, 2025, https://www.osteopathicresearch.org/s/orw/item/1346