Report on Patients with Orthopedic Conditions Undergoing the Mézières Method

Report of patients affected by orthopedic pathologies treated with the "Mézières" method

Dr. Maria Antonia Fara physiotherapist

In the last decade, the development of health care in Europe has stimulated a new awareness in health care, which imposes the recognition of the need for a higher level of knowledge in certain areas of physiotherapy practice. This change, on one hand, aims to gain efficiency and quality and, at the same time, tends to curb the rise in costs through the achievement of faster results. Also, we, in the physiotherapy outpatient clinic of ASL FG/3, following this change, have tried to respond to this need with the Mezieres method.
This method, devised by therapist Françoise Mezieres, is making its way, among other methods, in the field of Orthopedic Rehabilitation.
It aims at stretching muscles called "brakes" which, both by muscle physiology itself and by sudden traumas and lastly in muscular response to stress and external physical and psychological stimuli, undergo shortening, acting as a brake to normal joint excursion; this over a longer or shorter time leads to hypomobility of the joint function, painful symptoms and finally, postural "defense" (or antalgic) attitudes that the body assumes over time.
If not diagnosed early and correctly rehabilitated, it will force the patient into a vicious circle of "contracture-pain" from which he will hardly come out free of psycho-physical disorders.
From October 1998 to March '99, 10 patients were treated, 5 male and 5 female, aged between 20 and 60 years and affected by:
2 cases of acute cervicalgia,
3 cases of chronic cervicalgia,
3 cases of chronic low back pain with right lumbocruralgia,
2 cases of chronic low back pain with right lumbosciatalgia.
Among the patients presenting Cervicalgia, it was always radiated at the brachial and dorsal level. Three showed chronic phase symptoms, specifically somato-arthrosis and unco-arthrosis and discopathies at various cervical levels, complaining of pain, edema and stiffness at the site with reduced joint excursion. The other two, on the other hand, showed symptoms in the acute phase due to "whiplash" from a car accident with inability to perform any movement of flexion-extension, inclination and rotation of the neck with vertigo syndrome, therefore, they wore the collar for several months and had already undergone classic instrumental and manual physiotherapy without obtaining any results.
The patients underwent physiatric examination, diagnostic examination and accurate muscular and functional examination according to a clinical chart (which we report in the work) in which in the first part the demographic data, diagnosis and clinical history of the patient are highlighted, in a second part the clinical data detected from the examination in anterior, posterior and sagittal upright position and in supine position, for the evaluation and interpretation of the data obtained.
Ten sessions were considered, carried out in the morning for about one hour and with weekly frequency, during which a progressive recovery of joint function and a reduction of painful symptoms could be noticed, evaluated more specifically at the fifth session, that is when the patients underwent a new examination and control of the results.
At the end of the 10 sessions, it was possible to verify that the patients showed a marked regression of painful symptoms and a total recovery of joint function.
The remaining 5 patients suffered from low back pain with radiating pain: for 3 of them in the groin area, anteriorly to the thigh up to the medial part of the knee and for the other 2 along the sciatic territory up to the foot.
The same modalities were applied, noting, already from the first sessions, a centralization of the pain in the lumbar region, a feeling of lightness of the lower limbs and the lumbar tract itself. The last sessions also saw a significant regression of painful symptoms and a consequent improvement in posture and movements themselves.
Although presenting a small number of cases, given the six-month duration of the assignment at this ASL of the Therapist, we are optimistic in thinking that Public Health continues on this path thus considering the "quality" factor towards its patients: "the patient is not a number but a human being to be treated in the best possible way.