ARTICLE IN PRESS

doi:10.1016/j.pt

Physical Therapy in Sport 7 (2006) 210

www.elsevier.com/locate/yptsp

Book review

Functional Anatomy of the Spine, second ed, A.

Middleditch, J. Oliver, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2005. ISBN

0-7506-2717-4 Price: £32.99.

Most physiotherapists who studied in the 1990s willbe familiar with the first edition of the text, published in1990. It served as the ‘‘bible’’ of spinal anatomy andbiomechanics for practitioners.

This second edition serves a similar purpose. Theauthors, two highly respected physiotherapy clinicians,state that it is their intent to provide therapists with thenecessary scientific information to assist clinical decisionmaking; a role this text achieves on a fundamental level.

Throughout the well laid out text, there are referencesto the clinical implications and relevance of spinalanatomy, mechanics and pathology, making ideal read-ing for the clinician, as it relates research and scientificfact to patient presentations. Other clinically usefulinformation relating to joint palpation, range of motionand neural provocation testing is described in detail.

The chapter dealing with muscles of the vertebralcolumn includes a nice section on muscle contractionand function, as well as summarising some of the recentresearch dealing with the role of muscle control andactivation in the development and prevention of spinal

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pain. Anyone hoping for a detailed discussion of motorcontrol and its role in spinal stability and dysfunctionwill be disappointed with this chapter, as its primaryfocus is descriptive anatomy of individual musclestructure, nerve supply and action.

Likewise, sections on vertebral blood supply, thesacroiliac joint and spinal innervation provide a goodstarting point for the clinician wanting information ontopics such as vertebrobasilar insufficiency, sacroiliacjoint mechanics or pain mechanism. The scope of thetext does not allow detailed discussion of these topics,but the detailed reference lists for each section directfurther reading.

This is an ideal ‘‘starter text’’ for students and anyonedeveloping an interest in the management of spinalpathology. In dealing with the entire vertebral columnand all aspects of spinal function, what it lacks in depthis more than made up for in the breadth of informationcovered.

Claire SmallDirector of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation,

Pure Sports Medicine, UK