Location
Suwanee, GA
Start Date
17-4-2026 12:00 PM
End Date
17-4-2026 1:00 PM
Description
Introduction/Background:
Manual Therapy, including Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM), Manual Physical Therapy, and chiropractic, is frequently applied to the thoracic spine; however, no published review examines the role of manual therapy in treating thoracic spine symptoms. Literature reviews indicate that much of the research focused on thoracic spine manual therapy is focused on outcomes for other body regions, in particular the cervical spine and upper extremities.
The purpose of this research is to determine what evidence exists to show the effect of manual therapy on musculoskeletal thoracic symptoms. Additionally, gaps in the research and directions for future inquiry will be identified.
Methods:
A systematic records search was conducted using the PubMed, CINAHL, SPORT Discus, Academic Search Premier, and MEDLINE databases. Search terms were “Thoracic AND Manual Therapy NOT Neck NOT shoulder.” Included studies were those that presented new, empirical data specific to the effect of thoracic manual therapy on thoracic symptoms.
All rounds of screening were conducted by 2 independent investigators, with a 3rd serving as a tie-breaker when needed. The first round consisted of Title and Abstract Screening. Those agreed upon in this phase moved to full-text screening for inclusion.
The software system (Rayaan) assisted with deduplication; however, denoting articles as duplicates was ultimately determined by the investigators.
In the extraction phase, the 2 primary reviewers again worked independently with the 3rd and 4th investigators collaborating to ensure accurate and thorough representation of all included data. No Meta-Analysis was performed due to the heterogeneity of the included manuscripts.
Results:
The total number of records screened was 645, with 100 duplicates detected and removed. Thus, 545 articles were screened in the Title and Abstract phase. Of these, 34 were agreed upon for progression to the Full-Text Screening phase. In this portion of the process, an additional 15 records were removed, leaving 19 articles included in the synthesis.
Of the included studies, the primary treatments were joint mobilization/manipulation in 9, Soft-Tissue mobilization in 5, and a combination of these in 5. Due to the scoping nature of the review, a variety of study types were included. Quality assessment was completed using the Quality Assessment with Diverse Studies (QuADS) criteria, and found that a majority of the available studies were of low to medium quality.
Discussion:
In Full-text screening, it was found that many studies focused on biomechanical outcomes as opposed to symptom changes. This may be in part due to the lack of validated outcomes specific to the thoracic region. The total amount of literature specific to the research question was limited, and, of the studies included, the overall methodological quality was low, limiting clinical application.
Conclusion:
This scoping review describes the current literature on the use of thoracic spine manual therapy to treat symptoms in the thoracic region. This review found a marked scarcity of high-quality, clinically applicable literature, highlighting the need for robust future studies on this topic.
Embargo Period
6-1-2026
Included in
The Use of Manual Therapy for Thoracic Spine Symptoms: A Scoping Review
Suwanee, GA
Introduction/Background:
Manual Therapy, including Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM), Manual Physical Therapy, and chiropractic, is frequently applied to the thoracic spine; however, no published review examines the role of manual therapy in treating thoracic spine symptoms. Literature reviews indicate that much of the research focused on thoracic spine manual therapy is focused on outcomes for other body regions, in particular the cervical spine and upper extremities.
The purpose of this research is to determine what evidence exists to show the effect of manual therapy on musculoskeletal thoracic symptoms. Additionally, gaps in the research and directions for future inquiry will be identified.
Methods:
A systematic records search was conducted using the PubMed, CINAHL, SPORT Discus, Academic Search Premier, and MEDLINE databases. Search terms were “Thoracic AND Manual Therapy NOT Neck NOT shoulder.” Included studies were those that presented new, empirical data specific to the effect of thoracic manual therapy on thoracic symptoms.
All rounds of screening were conducted by 2 independent investigators, with a 3rd serving as a tie-breaker when needed. The first round consisted of Title and Abstract Screening. Those agreed upon in this phase moved to full-text screening for inclusion.
The software system (Rayaan) assisted with deduplication; however, denoting articles as duplicates was ultimately determined by the investigators.
In the extraction phase, the 2 primary reviewers again worked independently with the 3rd and 4th investigators collaborating to ensure accurate and thorough representation of all included data. No Meta-Analysis was performed due to the heterogeneity of the included manuscripts.
Results:
The total number of records screened was 645, with 100 duplicates detected and removed. Thus, 545 articles were screened in the Title and Abstract phase. Of these, 34 were agreed upon for progression to the Full-Text Screening phase. In this portion of the process, an additional 15 records were removed, leaving 19 articles included in the synthesis.
Of the included studies, the primary treatments were joint mobilization/manipulation in 9, Soft-Tissue mobilization in 5, and a combination of these in 5. Due to the scoping nature of the review, a variety of study types were included. Quality assessment was completed using the Quality Assessment with Diverse Studies (QuADS) criteria, and found that a majority of the available studies were of low to medium quality.
Discussion:
In Full-text screening, it was found that many studies focused on biomechanical outcomes as opposed to symptom changes. This may be in part due to the lack of validated outcomes specific to the thoracic region. The total amount of literature specific to the research question was limited, and, of the studies included, the overall methodological quality was low, limiting clinical application.
Conclusion:
This scoping review describes the current literature on the use of thoracic spine manual therapy to treat symptoms in the thoracic region. This review found a marked scarcity of high-quality, clinically applicable literature, highlighting the need for robust future studies on this topic.
Comments
Presented by Gabrielle Hoffman.