Compression of the Fourth Ventricle Using a Craniosacral Osteopathic Technique: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Evidence

Table 2

Basic information including study design details, clinical outcomes, and practitioners’ competences.

Study	Patient population	Follow-up	Assigned groups		Number of sessions/length of session	Practitioner profile	Type of intervention
Cardoso-de-Mello-e-Mello-Ribeiro et al., 2015 [6]	Healthy adults (physiotherapy students)	None	Intervention group; Control group	20; 20	10 min; 10 min	Experienced physiotherapist	Compression of the CV4
Cutler et al., 2005 [12]	Healthy adults	None	1 group underwent randomly 3 procedures	20	Unknown	Unknown	CV4; CV4 sham; No treatment
Hanten et al., 1999 [11]	Patients with episodic or chronic TTH	None	Control group; Intervention 1; Intervention 2	60	10 min; 10 min; 10 min	3 investigators	No treatment; Most comfortable position of head protraction/retraction and; flexion/extension CV4
Miana et al., 2013 [2]	Healthy adults	None	1 group underwent randomly 3 procedures	10	10 min	Unknown	CV4; CV4 sham; No treatment
Martins et al., 2015 [13]	Patients with chronic LBP	None	1 group underwent randomly 3 procedures	81	Unknown	Osteopath; Physiotherapist; 5th-year osteopathy student	CV4; CV4 sham; No treatment
Milnes and Moran, 2007 [14]	Healthy adults	None	Intervention group	10	1–10 min; 2–5 min; 3, individual; 4-5 min; 5–10 min	Experienced osteopath	Phase 1: baseline; Phase 2: touch; Phase 3: CV4; Phase 4: touch; Phase 5: baseline
Nelson et al., 2006 [15]	Healthy adults	None	Intervention group	26	5–7 min​; 1,5–10 min​; 5–7 min	Osteopath	Phase 1: baseline; Phase 2: CV4; Phase 3: response

: number of participants; CV4: compression of the fourth ventricle; TTH: tension-type headache; LBP: low back pain.