Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment in Surgical Care: Short Review of Research Publications in Osteopathic Journals During the Period 1990 to 2017

BACKGROUND. A growing trend in surgical care is the investigation and incorporation of multimodal interventions into standardized programs. Additionally, manual therapies such as osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) are being used with patients in surgical care. Yet the scientific dialogue and the use of OMT in surgical care are currently insubstantial. OBJECTIVE. The aim of this study was to present an overview of published research articles within the subject field of OMT in surgical care. METHOD. Summative review of peer-reviewed research articles published in osteopathic journals during the period 1990 to 2017. In total, 10 articles were identified. RESULT. Previous research has been conducted within the areas of abdominal, thoracic, gynecological, and/or orthopedic surgery with measured outcomes such as pain, analgesia consumption, length of hospital stay, and range of motion. Heterogeneity was identified in usage of osteopathic techniques, treatment duration, and occurrence, as well as in the treating osteopath’s experience. CONCLUSION. Despite the small number of research articles within this field, both positive measured effects as well as the absence of such effects were identified. Overall, there was a heterogeneity concerning surgical contexts, diagnoses, signs and symptoms, as well as surgical phases in current interprofessional osteopathic publications. In this era of multimodal surgical care, we argue that there is an urgent need to evaluate OMT in this context of care and with a proper research approach.