Milne Ongley Institute*
*This is a legally Constituted and Approved Mexican Company Founded by Dr. Milne J. Ongley in 1996

Objectives:
The primary objective is the Utilisation of the principles and practices of “state of the art” Orthopaedic Medicine in the management of patients with musculoskeletal disorders.  This specialty must not be confused with Orthopaedic Surgery.  Orthopaedic Surgery is that division of surgery; confining itself to the surgical management of patients with problems arising from the musculoskeletal system whether congenital or acquired.  Practitioners or Orthopaedic Medicine on the other hand manage similar patients without reliance upon surgery.  Obviously neither of these specialties supplants the other however just as obviously they complement each other.

Some circumstances demand surgical intervention others do not.  Medical diagnostic methodologies, approaches and adjunctive aids have improved meteorically during the twentieth century allowing numerous patients, previously requiring surgery, to now be successfully treated by conservative orthopaedic medical methodologies.  These techniques are always administered after a diagnosis has been proven by a complete medical history, coupled with a structural functional examination, more extensive and more finite than that proposed by the British physician, known as the Father of Orthopaedic Medicine, Dr. James Cyriax.  Also when necessary adjunctive aids including the various types of imaging, etc. are integrated but rarely if ever used as a sole diagnostic criterion.

It is true that Cyriax clarified and codified the confusions that had shielded true musculoskeletal disorders from elucidation for centuries.  He illuminated and debunked such “waste basket” terms as, Lumbago, Sciatica, Fibrositis, Generalised rheumatism, etc and most certainly would have debunked the current, common “waste basket” condition of today—Fibromyalgia.  Regrettably, Dr. Cyiax’s proposed manual examination protocol for diagnosing problems of the musculoskeletal system is seriously flawed.  These faults caused him to arrive at the incorrect diagnoses and subsequent administration of incorrect treatment to patients.  The resultant was that the clinical success of Dr. Cyriax, as measured by the patient’s pain relief and patient satisfaction was no better than that of his contemporary colleagues.

Alas most of the diagnostic errors initiated by Dr. James Cyriax have continued unabated throughout the years not only by individual physicians attempting to emulate the greatness of Dr. Cyriax, but by the diverse physical therapy professions.  Above all, they are accepted as factual by the international teaching associations such as the American Association of Sclerotherapy and the American Association of Orthopaedic Medicine.  One glaring error of Dr. Cyriax was that he believed and insisted upon that the most common cause of back pain both in its acute and chronic forms, especially when associated with concomitant leg pain, was due to a displacement of an intervertebral disc.  Today the same dogmatism is rife.  Certainly intervertebral disc problems do occur.  However they constitute a very definite minority as a common cause of back pain with or without accompanying leg pain.

Physicians to this day, as did Dr. Cyriax, persist with the supposedly common “discogenic theory” as the common cause of back pain.  This one Cyriax error has contributed to the appalling, universally recognized “failed back surgery”syndrome, “failed disc injection” syndrome, “failed synthetic disc insertion syndrome, etc.  Chiefly in these circumstances the surgeon is lead astray not only by the discogenic theory dogma, but also by a positive imaging result.  Unfortunately over time, just as the x-ray lost its reputation as the “all seeing and all knowing eye” the same fate awaits various imaging techniques as they are revealing their imperfections.  If the test for cure, as it should be, is that the patient returns to his former avocation or vocation or both free from pain, then the question must be answered what percentage of the patients treated by these surgical methods are in fact cured?

In stark contrast, the conservative approaches used by the Orthopaedic physician, results in the vast majority of patients using the aforementioned definition of cure, being cured.  Time it is for the Orthopaedic physician and the Orthopaedic surgeon to be coupled together for the benefit of medical progress and most importantly for the benefit of patients afflicted with musculoskeletal disorders.  Thousands of Orthopaedic Physicians should be trained through monitored residency programs so that these physicians may join Orthopaedic and Neurological surgical teams throughout the world.

Secondarily, The Milne Ongley Institute is for the research and development of better treatment modalities and better solutions currently employed in Orthopaedic medicine.  This objective is interwoven with physician education/training by a complete fully authorized residency program.