Manipulation is an art, a science and a philosophy. Manipulation is sometimes called ‘Orthopaedic medicine’ by medical practitioners, or ‘finger surgery’. It is one of the oldest techniques used for healing different ailments of the body. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, used to manipulate spines and joints of his patients. Sushrut, the pioneer of Indian medicine, used manipulation and called it ‘Asthi-chikitsa’.
With the advance of the science of Osteopathy, the criticism against it is now dying out and doctors are employing the manipulation art, specially the orthopaedic surgeons abroad and in India too. Medical profession has come to realise that manipulation shortens the period of recovery and protects a patient from prolonged agony and mental apathy.
It avoids many an unnecessary operation. Several orthopaedic surgeons abroad manipulate each and every case, and decide on operation only when manipulation has failed.
For an Osteopath, hand is his main instrument of treatment. He has to use his hand a lot in diagnosis and treatment. The sense of touch by his hands increases with constant use, the feel becomes more refined, they are able to distinguish even little tissue changes, muscle spasm, difference in the warmth of the area, even the difference in mobility, or restriction of movement with the help of fingers and with the help of his sense of touch.
The osteopaths try to see through their fingers; they have thinking fingers. Dr. Modi explains that in the case of blind men, their sense of touch is much more refined and their feel much sharper. He described that, at the London College of Osteopathy, they were handed a six-pence coin. They were asked to keep it in their pockets and then feel it again and again with their fingers.
They were made to try and find out the crown of the queen, the nose, the ears: to just feel and keep on feeling, so as to be able to distinguish them easily. A clinical sense was thus built up, which was developed when they came out of the college to actual practice. An osteopath is a physician, whose “fame is in his hands”. It is no exaggeration that his mere touch is enough to cure. It is an Osteopath, who makes use of his hands more than any other physician.
In recent years a big advance has been made by the medical profession in using manipulation as a therapeutic measure. In 1945, Cyriax made it known that back pain, sciatica, cervical spondylosis, bronchial neuralgia, etc. are due to slipped disc. Manipulation treatment has, thus, taken firm footing in the medical world with this realisation.
Most ethical treatment for slipped disc, or protrusion of the inter-vertebral disc, now, is to slip it back to its normal position, something which is really aimed at by osteopaths. Most of the orthopaedic surgeons are manipulating their patients now.
Only five years ago, say, if one hundred disc operations were being performed, these have been reduced now to about five. This is due to growing use of manipulation in the treatment of such patients.