November 29, 2019
Allie Valleroy, PTA, of our Smithton, IL, clinic, recently attended the Kinesiology Taping and Manual Therapy course provided by Summit Professional Education. The six-hour course was online and was presented by Mark Murphy, PT, and an ABPTS Orthopedic Certified Specialist. Allie found the course to be interesting and beneficial as it outlined different treatment strategies, how to correctly bill for treatments and demonstrated using kinesiology tape and manual therapy for common injuries.
Kinesiology tape is non-compressive and can be worn for multiple days without limiting ROM. Demonstration on ways to remove the tape, so it is not painful for the patient was provided. Methods included rolling, skinning, and proprioception method. Fan-shaped, I, and Y types of taping strips were explained. The I stip is applied over a muscle belly, the Y stips are used for around the muscle belly and the fan shape is used to decrease inflammation and pain over a large area.
Manual therapy is known as skilled hand movements. It is often used by the therapist to improve the patient’s tissue mobility, ROM to join, and decrease swelling. Many studies were done comparing patients who received manual therapy and those who did not during therapy treatments’ resulting in a better outcome for patients who received manual therapy. Kinesiology taping is a way to allow the patient to “take-home” manual therapy on the days they do not have a therapy session.
