Osteopathic manipulative treatment for pneumonia

Murray Goldstein

doi:10.1186/1750-4732-4-3

Abstract

The pneumonias due to infection continue to be a meaningful threat to the health and viability of persons, particularly those in high risk groups: children, the aged and the debilitated. Noll and colleagues provide us with the results of a well-designed and well-executed multi-institutional controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in the treatment of pneumonia. The data obtained indicate that by intention-to-treat analysis, the addition of OMT to conventional care did not improve the designated outcomes when compared to conventional care only. A disappointing but important finding. However, by per-protocol analysis, the addition of OMT or of light touch decreased length of hospital stay, the duration of intravenous antibiotics and the incidence of respiratory failure and death relative to conventional care only. Further study is called for to explain these surprising results.Meeting the need for randomized clinical trials of the role and efficacy of OMT is a responsibility of high priority for the osteopathic profession in this age of evidence-based medicine. The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) needs to consider reinstating a dues-generated financial set-aside both to increase its support of osteopathic research and to initiate a program of physician-investigator career development awards to recruit and help establish osteopathic clinical investigators in a career in translational and clinical research.

Highlights

The publication of the paper by Noll et al [1] on the efficacy of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in patients with acute infectious pneumonia in Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care raises two important issues: the results of the research per se and meeting the need for implementing additional clinical studies of osteopathic principles and practices
Results of a randomized controlled clinical trial The pneumonias due to infection continue to be a meaningful threat to the health and viability of persons, those in high risk groups: children, the aged and the debilitated
With full recognition of the valuable information accumulated over the years from observational studies, the randomized clinical trial has become the standard for evidence-based medicine, including osteopathic clinical care

Summary

Introduction

Introduction The publication of the paper by Noll et al [1] on the efficacy of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in patients with acute infectious pneumonia in Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care raises two important issues: the results of the research per se and meeting the need for implementing additional clinical studies of osteopathic principles and practices. Results of a randomized controlled clinical trial The pneumonias due to infection continue to be a meaningful threat to the health and viability of persons, those in high risk groups: children, the aged and the debilitated.

Results

Conclusion