Product Description

Serious pathology accounts for only 1% of back pain in the general population, however, if you work within musculoskeletal medicine, at some stage, you will see a patient with serious pathology. Red Flags is the essential guide to correctly identifying and acting on warning signs when a therapist becomes suspicious of serious pathology in a patient presenting with back pain. This handy pocketbook offers practical strategies for developing clinical reasoning so that therapists are able to distinguish between Red Flags and Red Herrings along the patient journey, and have greater confidence in their diagnosis.

Drawing on their years of experience and personal case studies, Greenhalgh and Selfe, present a truly innovative guide. They introduce:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38288 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Turtleback
• 228 pages

Customer Reviews

Handy little book!!
The book has a grading system of red flags according to the severity of condition which is very useful and enables a quick glance inorder to decide on the importance of what has been discovered. When reading the book I kept coming across many points/ 'tips' that I had not come across before.

The book will be very useful for students/ Junior Physiotherapists as it is very clear and also has some case studies which are annotated giving a clear explanation of the clinical reasoning for different red flags. It will also be very useful for Senior Physiotherapists and be great as a departmental book to allow a quick glance for the more unusal red flags.

Warning signs and symptoms
Red Flags
A Guide to Identifying Serious Pathology of the Spine
By Sue Greenhalgh, MA, GD Phys, MCSP and James Selfe, PhD, MA, GD Phys, MCSP
Churchill Livingstone
ISBN: 978-0-443-10140-3

This book would probably not have been written ten years ago. Though the hierarchical structure within the NHS changes slowly, there are distinct signs that more healthcare practitioners are being asked to take on some of the tasks that the medical profession saw as its sole responsibility. Included in this developing group are physiotherapists, osteopaths, and pharmacists amongst others.

`Red Flags; A Guide to Identifying Serious Pathology of the Spine' has been written to assist physiotherapists and others who may be required to assess patients who present with what may seem to be essentially innocent mechanical neck or back pain, but who actually have serious underlying pathology. Many have written of the importance of looking for possible indicators of potentially serious illness including cancer when taking a case history. This pocket book succinctly describes the hierarchy of danger signs and then goes on to weigh each sign relative to the others. Finally the authors provide suggestions for strategies on how to deal with these potentially life-threatening indicators when identified.

At present technology seems to produce a stream of new and seemingly irrefutable diagnostic tests including MRI, CAT scans and sophisticated blood analysis protocols. Those innovations may tend to detract from the importance of the face to face consultation which cannot be overplayed in providing at least a tentative diagnosis. A great deal of the text covers not just what information the practitioner needs to obtain, but why this information is important in forming a picture of the patient's illness. Having obtained much subjective verbal information, the authors emphasise the art of considering non-verbal or `intuitive' information to make for a comprehensive diagnosis.

The importance of experience in recognising normal with abnormal behaviour, and signs that constitute a red herring as opposed to a potentially important diagnostic sign need to be taught. As does the ability to attentively listen to the patient at more than a `tick the boxes' level.

Clearly a small pocket book cannot provide more than an outline of the topics covered, but I found the descriptions of the key points hard to disagree with, and clearly illustrated.

The reference material provided for further reading is all recently published, with much being available on line. This book can be readily recommended to those working in primary care, and in particular physical medicine.

Donald Scott ND. DO.

Red Flags
This is a fantastic resource for new and old physiotherapists alike. This book provides a great deal of information that is easily accessible. Its compact size means that the book can be carried around and provides valuable information at your fingertips.