Benefits of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment for Hospitalized Elderly Patients With Pneumonia

Source: http://www.jaoa.org/cgi/reprint/100/12/776

Physicians today are under constant pressure to discharge patients early from the hospital, because of the current prospective payment system and the influence of managed care. As soon as clinical improvement warrants, patients are empirically changed to oral antibiotic therapy in preparation for hospital discharge.

An interesting clinical trial found that osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is thought to be beneficial for patients with pneumonia by showing that the treatment group had a significantly shorter duration of intravenous antibiotic treatment and a shorter hospital stay.
Most participants received one visit from the OMT specialist within the first 48 hours of diagnosis and another visit before discharge. The OMT seemed to be well tolerated in this elderly, acutely ill, frail population. It has been theorized that OMT may improve the immune response to infection, as evidenced by a more robust fever and WBC response, and this study found some evidence to support the idea.

See the full article on JAOA.