Dr Patriquin retired from the US Navy as Captain in the Medical Corps in 1987, after 37 years service. A group of 20 Melbourne osteopaths were privileged to attend his Postural Imbalance seminar on one weekend in February 2000. He also presented this seminar in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. During the course of the weekend Dr Patriquin shared with us what techniques some of the overseas osteopaths were using to treat and manage various postural decompensations that could lead to visual dysfunction, skin lesions and general and specific body pain patterns. Dr Patriquin believes that the sacral base plane must be horizontal for proper postural balance to occur.
Examination is carried out to detect sacral base levelling or unlevelling.
A true indication of this may require standing postural xrays specifically taken to the practitioners request. It has been observed that the sacral base plane is not always the same as the plane between the tops of the two femurs. Dr Patriquin believes that this can be due to various factors including anatomical asymmetry between the two halves of the pelvis, inequality of sacral halves or from motions of the sacrum or sacro-iliac joints. Dr Patriquin explained the different approaches of using heel lifts in both the short and the long leg. The seminar also included discussion and practical workshop covering treatment of headache, spondylolisthesis and the acute cervical spine and osteopathic interpretation of fibromyalgia.