Evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of osteopathic gallbladder drainage techniques
Authors: Belash V. O. , Zavadsky E. Yu. , Zueva A. I. 
Published: September 2024

Introduction. In recent decades, a lot of new materials about etiology and pathogenesis of biliary system diseases have been obtained and new effective drugs have been introduced. But, despite this, there remains much unrecognized and controversial in etiopathogenesis and principles of treatment of the disease. Moreover, the frequency of complicated forms of the disease and the overall incidence of biliary pathology continues to grow, which clearly shows the need to search for new approaches to diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. The leading causes of biliary tract pathology formation, actual problems of pharmacotherapy (allergic reactions, side effects, polypragmasy), certain aspects of comorbid pathology make clinicians pay closer attention to non-medicament treatment methods, including osteopathic correction. Previous studies have already demonstrated a good clinical effect of osteopathic correction in the treatment of patients with biliary disorders. At the same time, most studies in osteopathy present an assessment of the possibility of using osteopathic correction in the treatment of certain nosological forms. But no less important, in our opinion, is to conduct studies aimed at evaluating the clinical effectiveness (efficiency) of individual osteopathic approaches and techniques.

The aim of the study: to investigate the clinical effectiveness of osteopathic techniques of gallbladder drainage.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted in 2022–2023 on the basis of Polyclinic of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (Moscow) and City Mariinsky Hospital (St. Petersburg). There were 30 people (9 men and 21 women) aged 18 to 59 years (mean age was 40,4±2,3 years) without pathology of the gastrointestinal tract and gallbladder (biliary tract) who agreed to participate in the study. All participants underwent a fasting gallbladder volume study, followed by a gallbladder volume study one hour after eating a trial breakfast (TB). One week after the first study, the same patients underwent another fasting gallbladder volume study, then a gallbladder volume study after osteopathic correction (OC) techniques. Thus two observation groups were formed: observation 1 (TB) — study of gallbladder function before and after taking a trial breakfast; observation 2 (OC) — study of gallbladder function before and after gallbladder drainage techniques. Participants did not receive other treatments during the study. All respondents underwent clinical osteopathic examination and biliary ultrasound with motor function score (MFS) was performed. Outcomes in this study were defined as changes in gallbladder size and motility.

Results. No global level somatic dysfunction was identified in the study participants. Regional biomechanical disorders and separate local somatic dysfunctions were more typical for them. However, it was not possible to identify any predominant dysfunctions, as all of them were detected in single cases. After the exposure was completed, the osteopathic status was re-evaluated. The analysis showed that there were no statistically significant changes in the frequency of detection of the main somatic dysfunctions in both observations (p>0,05). In the observed respondents, no abnormalities in the basic size and volume of the gallbladder at the beginning of the study were revealed. After the conducted stimulation no statistically significant differences in gallbladder size (length and width) both within and between the observation groups were registered (p>0,05), but statistically significant dynamics was obtained in the form of gallbladder volume decrease in response to the effect (p<0,05) both when using TB and after OC. All participants were assessed with a measure of gallbladder motor function (MFS). In case of observation 1 (TB), the MFS value was 0,66±0,09 and observation 2 (OC) was 0,58±0,07, which corresponds to normal gallbladder functional activity. Compared to the use of a trial breakfast, osteopathic correction demonstrated a slightly less pronounced effect on gallbladder motor function, but these differences between the groups were not statistically significant (p>0,05).

Conclusion. Osteopathic manipulations on the gallbladder and biliary tract have an effect on the gallbladder volume and motor activity comparable to the effect of the trial breakfast.