5 - MSK Assessment Principles and Concepts Flashcards
What is the purpose of an MSK Assessment?
To understand the pt’s problems and design a Rx plan.
What is the difference between a sign and a symptom?
Symptom - what the patient tells you, what they complain of
Sign - something the therapist observes or feels upon palpation
What is the number one rule of an initial assessment?
Always give the impression that the pt’s problem is the most important thing that you have to deal with and nothing else matters
What are things to include in your subjective assessment history taking?
Personal factors: age, occupation (type of work, hours working, etc), language, gender, activity history, culture, psychological factors, hand dominance
Environmental/Social Factors: living arrangements, family/friend support, culture, work/school, team/coach/trainer environment
What to include when looking at the history of their present illness?
When did it start
How long have you been dealing with it
What was the MOI if there was one
Slow building or traumatic
What things do you want to know about your patients pain?
Site Does it radiate Nature Periodic or constant Duration Intensity Quality
What is referred pain?
When symptoms have left their origin where the patient first felt pain
What causes referred pain?
Convergence of sensory input from separate parts of the body onto the same dorsal horn neuron
Secondary pain resulting from a myofascial trigger point
Secondary hyperalgesia from inflammation
What is the most common of example of referred pain?
When people have a heart attack (mainly males) feel pain in their left arm
What is the acronym for remember what to ask about a patients pain?
SOCRATES
Site, Onset, Characteristic, Radiation, Alleviation, Timing, Exacerbation, Severity
What are the three types of pain?
Mechanical, Chemical and Thermal
What does ADL stand for
Activities of Daily Living
If a patient has pain in the morning what can that indicate?
Ligamentous pain or inflammatory disease (ex. rheumatoid arthritis, allow chemicals to build up over night)
If a patient has stiffness in the morning what can that be indicative of?
Degenerative joint disease, loss of lubrication while sleeping, could also be inflammatory if stiffness lasts more than 1 hour.
What are some questions you may ask a patient who complains of pain at night?
Does the pain wake the patient up?
Does the pain keep them from sleeping
Is there anything that relieves the symptoms?
What are the two causes of night pain?
Chemical and Mechanical
What are the chemical signs of night pain?
When movement and position can’t have an effect on the pain
Comes on around the same time each night
Patient will often “walk the floor”
Could possibly be cancer
What would make you think it is a mechanically caused night pain?
When it improves with change in position and movement