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