Dutton’s Orthopaedic: Examination, Evaluation and Intervention, Fifth Edition

Book Preface

The fifth edition of this book is an update of information and bibliography provided in the previous versions together with a reorganization of various chapters.
The 2017 Global Burden of Disease study revealed that musculoskeletal disorders are the second biggest contributor to disability worldwide.1 The United States currently spends more money on healthcare per person than any other country in the world, with current projections indicating that the United States will spend 20% of the gross domestic product on healthcare by the year 2019.1 As the population continues to age, the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions, and their subsequent expenses, will also increase. This financial burden will place an increasing pressure on the orthopaedic clinician to provide value for money—the achievement of a health outcome relative to the costs incurred. Gone are the days when a clinician can rely on an expensive shotgun approach to treatment. Instead, the emphasis must now be placed on outcomes such as patient satisfaction and accurate measures of clinical outcomes, for it is the consistent measurement and reporting of clinical outcomes that are the most powerful tools in moving toward a value-based system.2
The APTA’s current vision statement, “Transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience,” highlights the fact that the “physical therapy profession will define and promote the movement system as the foundation for optimizing movement to improve the health of society.”2
To that end, this book aims to provide the reader with a systematic and evidence-based approach to the examination and intervention of the orthopaedic patient from the viewpoint of an expert on the movement system. Such an approach must be eclectic because no single method works all of the time. Thus, this book attempts to incorporate the most reliable concepts currently available.
I hope that this book will be the best available textbook, guide, review, and reference for healthcare students and clinicians involved in the care of the orthopaedic population.

Mark Dutton, PT