Exploring Neurosurgeons' Familiarity with Osteopathic Medicine: Implications for Integration of OMM and a Call for Future Research

Lecture Summary: The effects of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) have been highly researched throughout all subspecialties of medicine, however there is a notable lack of osteopathic-based research targeted toward the field of neurosurgery. To gauge the interest of OMM by neurosurgeons, a survey was distributed to 6500+ neurosurgeon members of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) using information available in the ‘member directory” on the AANS website. The survey assessed 1) the neurosurgeons’ understanding of the tenets and applications of OMM, 2) their rates of usage of OMM in their practice, 3) their interest in seeing more osteopathic-based research into the applications of OMM specifically in their patient populations, and 4) their willingness to apply OMM in their practice if presented with research demonstrating a clinical benefit.

Both MD and DO neurosurgeons reported using OMM, or referring their patients for OMM less than once per year. Compared to MDs, DO neurosurgeons ranked their familiarity with the tenets of osteopathic medicine (p < 0.0001) and applications of osteopathic manipulative techniques (OMT) in their practice (p = 0.0018) significantly higher. The degree of familiarity of the tenets of osteopathic medicine and applications of OMT in practice was positively correlated with neurosurgeons’ comfort recommending OMM as a nonsurgical pre-operative treatment option, as a post-surgical rehabilitative treatment option, and as a non-surgical pain management option (p < 0.0001 for all). There was clear interest in seeing more research into applications of OMT in the field of neurosurgery, and, if presented with research demonstrating positive applications of OMT relevant to the management of neurosurgery patients, there was a high interest in integrating those applications into their practice.