Dr. M.B. DeJarnette

Rose Ertler Memorial

DeJarnette Library

The Blessings of Sacro Occipital Technic

The Blessings of Sacro Occipital Technic
By M. B. DeJarnette, D.C., D.O.

Sacro Occipital Research Society International Dispatcher

I could write elaborately and illustrate minutely a new method of adjusting a right innominate, and perhaps what I wrote and illustrated would fit 1 patient in 100. Counting our blessings in Sacro Occipital Technic can be 10 or 100 times per day, depending of course, upon how many sick and injured consult us on a given day.

Sacro Occipital Technic serves us so well we sometimes forget that this is a living technic, and like all living things, demands respect, affection, and praise. We do not have to be loud-mouthed in our praise, or emotional in our affection, or holier-than-thou in our respect, but we must always be mindful that without Sacro Occipital Technic, we could not do what we so easily do so often when all else has failed.

Sacro Occipital teaching has dug deeper into the bowels of chiropractic than has any other technique…We have moved more dirt and exposed more cavities than all others combined. Sacro Occipital Technic is dedicated to the truth, and the truth we shall eventually obtain.

The chiropractic subluxation is at this time our special forte and we feel that our discoveries have strengthened chiropractic in the eyes and minds of scientists. We now believe that the "chiropractic subluxation" can be simply stated as follows…"Failure of a segment of the cord to respond to normal demand due to physical encroachment by an osseous part of a vertebral segment." The failure in a state of subluxation is not osseous but neurological. The cause of that failure in chiropractic is pressure by some part of a vertebral unit. There can be other types of failure such as tumors, inflammations, dysplasias, compression fractures, and many others, but the failure that is within our category as chiropractors, lies in some part of some vertebral unit producing pressure into some part of the neurological segment of the spinal cord or its nerve root.

We must discontinue listing misalignments, rotations, tippages, off-centering, wedgings, and lateralities as subluxations, but must list them as the abnormal position of a vertebral unit producing a chiropractic subluxation into the soft tissues of the neurological unit involved in lost response to demand.

If we continue to list all misalignments, abnormal positions, rotations, inferiorities and wedges, we are merely listing a bunch of fence posts that are out of line but still keeping the cows in the pasture.

Our X-ray(s) films and the interpretations we give them often look very ridiculous to a medical radiologist, because we list innumerable vertebrae that have no neurological or segmental involvement in functions. The radiologist is smart enough to know that a neurologist can do simple tests and prove that a tenth thoracic we list as being subluxated had no relationship to any abnormal function from that segment of the cord.

Measuring the wedges produced by shrinking of a vertebral disk is absurd, because the disc has no relationship to the problem at hand, unless neurological testing at that level shows lost function, and if function is lost, pain within the nerve cord zone is aggravated.

The chiropractor should be more interested in the expanded disc, from a pain viewpoint, because this disc expansion is real and is not the result of degenerative disease, old age, or occupational hazards, but is the result of an acute inflammation produced within the meningeal system of the body and reflected into the serous system of the disc. This is our typical innominate meningeal, and we can at last advise ice instead of heat and do the patient a great service.

When we accept the chiropractic subluxation for what it actually is and stop discussing all of those things it is not, we can then pick up our feet and walk lightly and surely along the road of true scientific investigation.

The chiropractic practice built upon selling the patient a bunch of X-rays in order to sell chiropractic is in error, and will eventually reflect sadly upon our profession. The chiropractor must use his X-ray abilities to analyze the vertebral unit proven responsible for the cord's segmental unit failure.

If you expose a patient to a 14" x 36" film and then mark all of the deviations you see, you have committed yourself to a correction of those deviations. If the patient should demand a re-X-ray examination and should, upon competent authority, find that you have failed to correct all of those deviations you so carefully pointed out, you could be in serious trouble.

Should your analysis point to the atlas as the probable cause of the osseous interruption of normal spinal cord response, and should you state in your summation that the position of the atlas was responsible for that cord failure, you could, on re-X-ray analysis, show your absolute correction. If the patient did not fully recover, it was due to failure of the spinal cord segment to regenerate or rehabilitate following your correction.

Should you point to a right ilium and show the patient that it has suffered an external flare with an anterior rotation, and should you predict that it would require 10 adjustments for a correction, the patient assumes you are going to change the position of that ilium, and if you do not alter that designated position, again, troubled waters are possible. If a surgeon sets a misaligned fracture of the radius, he is presumed to produce alignment. If he fails, he is in trouble.

Sacro Occipital Technic is redefining the true meaning of a "chiropractic vertebral subluxation." Sacro Occipital Technic now lays the groundwork for scientific investigation and advancement for our profession.

The means by which we now arrive at the truly subluxated segmental area would be the classical Sacro Occipital Procedure.

The DeJarnette Block Technique has done more to open the windows of investigation into the true aspects of the neurological failures suffered by so many millions of persons daily, that we marvel that this procedure could have so long remained unknown. When we began the pelvic block technique some years ago, we did so with but one thought in mind, and that was to develop a method of obtaining relaxation of the innominate prior to an iliac or ischial adjustment. We had no thoughts at all that this procedure would open the way to self-correction of many so termed chiropractic vertebral subluxations. In the beginning of our investigations that lead us to the present block techniques, we would use pillows or books to jack up one ilium and try and shift the weight to the opposing ilium.

The primary method of beginning judgment on the sacro iliac subluxation, as it used to be termed, was the leg measurement. When one leg remained consistently short in prone and supine positions, we assumed the shortening was due either to lack of bone development, lack of muscle support, or the rotation of the supporting innominate. For several years, we always did a standing X-ray of the pelvis in the study of the short leg problem. We would then do a standing P-A exposure on the same pelvis, and then compare the 2 films. When the films would compare equally on the short leg side, we would then use a 14 x 36 inch film and X-ray the extremities in an effort to determine if actual femoral, tibial, or ankle deficiencies existed. When we would not determine a leg bone deficiency, we would then assume that the cause of the short leg was a rotation of the ilium.

The osteopathic profession had accomplished a great deal on this sacro iliac problem, and we did investigate their accomplishments. The most fascinating to be investigated was the old D.O. in Los Angeles who adjusted the ilium by using a strap. The strap would be long enough to use the foot as one base, the ilium the other base, and the strength of the leg to move the ilium. This kindly D.O. gave me permission to carry on his research in that field, which I did for some 2 years, and did write "Sacroiliac Technic" in 1938, and on page 43 illustrated the strap technic for a "posterior upper innominate subluxation." On page 45 the technic for an "anterior lower innominate subluxation" was illustrated. All of you should read this little book. It sets the stage for what we now term "the DeJarnette pelvic and spinal block techniques." Some 30 years have elapsed in this span of research.

In continuing our research on the cause of the short leg, we decided that if a proper position of a strap with leg pressure could make a correction, we could do the same thing by using the patient's body weight, so now begins the application of a book or folded towel to the underside of the ilium as the patient lies prone or supine. The basic surprise in store for me was the rapidity of change in the leg length. Often times the book would be placed under the anterior superior iliac spine, and before we could reach the position of the feet, the short leg was shorter, and the longer the book remained in position, the shorter would become the leg until we reached a point of patient complaint. We would then place the patient supine and place the book under the posterior superior iliac spine and the leg would lengthen. Before and after X-ray films showed a correction in many instances. The 14 x 36 film of the extremities actually showed a change in leg length on the short and long leg side. We corrected only the short side, for many months in the beginning of this research.

Finding a means of balancing the pelvis without physical effort or force gave us a means of accomplishing what we had previously done by the use of physical effort, and oftentimes patient discomfort. In knowing how to lengthen the short leg by placing a book under the posterior superior iliac spine with the patient supine, then brought forth the problem of knowing what we had accomplished after we had lengthened the leg. Had we corrected the sacroiliac slip? Had we readjusted the ilium to the sacrum or the sacrum to the ilium? Was the effort we had produced muscular or articular? Did this correction have any deep bearing upon the physical comfort and welfare of the patient? Just making a change means nothing until you determine what the change has produced in body components.

We had previously found that the short leg could be lengthened by flexing the leg with patient supine, and then forcing the knee medial. We found that we could shorten the long leg by flexing the leg with the patient supine and bringing the knee lateral. The correction of the short or long leg was not a necessity as we had the means of accomplishing that feat, but we had not proved that this type of correction had any specific benefits other than to produce relaxation of the occipital atlantal spinal area. This phenomenon alone had made it almost mandatory that in every migraine patients or other types of occipital atlantal disturbance, that our first procedure was to level the pelvis by using the legs as levers to normalize their position one to the other.

The placement of the book or folded towel under the ilium for leg equalization did not gain much ground for several years. We, at that time, had what appeared to be better and more specific means of doing this job quite well, but there was always that one instance in which a patient suffered so much pain that it was physically impossible to move any part of his body, and in those instances, we always went back to the book or towel wedge.

During 1960, we were especially interested in controlling certain types of intracranial tensions and we had developed the theory that this type of tension developed from some abnormal functional position of the sacrolumbar spine. We had been doing cranial analysis and studies of intracranial and intraspinal tensions for many years, but at this time had a most serious project going to determine the relative relationship between respiration and tension.

In 1957, we began a total X-ray study of every patient's lateral sacrolumbar spine. We also did upright and supine and prone 14 x 17 A-P films of the pelvis and sacrolumbar spine. We were, at this time, developing the S.O.T.O. and the C.O.T.I. leg movement adjustments for the piriformis muscle distortions and the film studies were most important to show pelvic and sacrolumbar changes that would occur with the S.O.T.O. or the C.O.T.I. maneuvers. In some instances, the S.O.T.O. or the C.O.T.I. would make a beautiful correction, but the patients would complain of dyspena, cardiac palpitations, vertigo, and some nausea. Evidently we were pulling on some vital structures associated with the maintenance of cerebrospinal fluid pressure and movement when we used the S.O.T.O. or the C.O.T.I. Quite often the S.O.T.O. would relieve a sciatica, but would produce a distortion of the pelvis gaining this relief. We would oftentimes notice a skull tippage following the S.O.T.O. or the C.O.T.I. adjustments.

The X-ray studies made at this time showed that the sacrolumbar spine was perhaps the key to many of our problems, and in particular as it would or would not respond to respiratory effort.

During 1961 - 1962, we researched methods of normalizing the minus and plus sacrolumbar angulation. This particular part of our research is responsible for the total development of the pelvic and spinal block techniques, for it became evident that in order to normalize a plus sacrolumbar angle, we had to have some method of propping the anterior ilium up for a few minutes, and in normalizing the minus sacrolumbar spine, we had to lift the lower pelvis in order that the upper part would be thrust forward. This was done manually at first, but it is hard labor standing beside a patient holding a 200-pound man's pelvis up from the table. We again reverted to the old book technique, but quite soon decided to go about this business with some respect for chiropractic, and thus the DeJarnette pelvic and spinal blocks were born.

Inasmuch as the blocks will be a great part of Sacro Occipital Technic from this day on, it seemed appropriate that a small bit of their history be given you and for future generations of chiropractors who might be so fortunate as to dig one of our Seminar Notes from some ancient bookshelf. It would be nice to know that Sacro Occipital Technic and all it stands for could be retained as a major part of chiropractic by our teaching institutions, but such does not seem possible at this time.

In four short years, the pelvic blocks have become the spinal blocks, and what began as a specific application now reaches into the area of general and total application.

The basic intent of the pelvic blocks in 1961 was a means of correction by blockage and force applied to the plus and minus sacrolumbar problems. Man has worked for generations to develop some method of alleviating the miseries of the world by alleviating this encumbered joint. Beds have been built…corsets manufactured…shoes by the millions have been designed, and exercises by the thousands have been developed. But in the final analysis, 2 pieces of wood cut wedge-shaped, padded and upholstered, properly placed, will and can do more to make man comfortable than all of the wizardry of the world put together. Man has conquered man's basic problem…"sacrolumbar malfunction." The forest grew the timber to make the wedges that enabled man to use his spine as a column with the comfort and strength of a beam.

Research through the 1962 - 1963 period developed the need for additional application of the wedges. I am sure that all of the readers of this summation are now quite familiar with the wedge techniques as now used in Sacro Occipital Technic.

The remarkable feat that necessitated this tome was the far reaching effects of a localized application of the wedges. The wedges were primarily for the correction of one pelvic fault. And that idea has now developed into a total system of pelvic and spinal corrections.

Basically, the application of the pelvic wedges changed many of our primary occipital palpatory findings, and the wedges certainly did alter some of our indicator findings. Having observed that change, we set about to try and discover why the changes did occur.

The wedges are being used to produce a purely mechanical effect upon the sacrolumbar spine, the thought being that a plus sacrolumbar spine would function better if some of the anteriority was removed, and in the minus sacrolumbar spine, we thought it desirable to increase the sacral base angulation. The total idea was to afford better sacrolumbar facet function.

The alteration of the sacrolumbar spine brought forth many changes in the total mechanical response of our patients, as well as a new response of the neurological systems. The biggest surprise occurred in our occipital palpatory findings. The wedge blocks were making adjustments that we had not been able to produce by hand thrust. The biggest surprise of all came upon X-ray re-examination following the use of the wedges without any type of thrust having been given. The wedge blocks have the ability to return man to a state of adjustment over the same road he took to become out of adjustment. The blocks proved that man does not suffer a spontaneous vertebral subluxation; rather, he gains this vertebral subluxation over a period of abuse and misuse.

The basic miracle of the pelvic and spinal blocks is their ease of use and comfort they almost instantly give the patient. Tense and frightened patients relax and oftentimes fall asleep almost instantly.

The blocks as now used in Sacro Occipital Technic have opened a vast new field of chiropractic therapy. The emotional patient finds comfort in this new readjustment. The obese patient is handled by the average chiropractor without stress or strain. The larger the patient, the more efficient the block technique application. We do find that the very small patient must have some added help from the chiropractor or his assistants.

Tension is man's problem today and it has become a total problem throughout the universe. Millions of tranquilizer pills are swallowed daily by people under 20 years of age…old patients take them by the billions. It is seldom that any patient under medical care escapes without some type tranquilizer or pain control potion or pill. This worldwide tension is directly associated with bad adjustments to environment, occupation, or self. The family unit develops its problems because no two members of the same family have the same tension. The great equalizer in today's world of therapy will be the DeJarnette pelvic blocks. We can take 50 patients…all with different complaints, different problems and tensions, and emotions, and place those 50 patients on the blocks in proper position for 15 minutes each, and have them come off the blocks more closely attuned than ever before possible. All congressmen should spend 15 minutes on the DeJarnette blocks, under proper supervision, before they vote on any important measure.

Occipital atlantal tensions are almost instantly relieved as the blocks go about their silent business of readjusting humanity. The blocks make physiological changes…they make organic changes…they make functional changes. Nothing in all of chiropractic has ever offered humanity the opportunity of self adjustment that this new block technique offers. Radjust man to man's self and man will become a friend to himself.

In the beginning, we hoped for a little help from the blocks. We hoped to correct the sacrolumbar spine and thus do a mechanical reversal of a serious problem. We did solve this problem, but much more happened… Problems that remained problems before are now presenting solutions. The DeJarnette blocks have added to the strength and the stature and the disciplines of chiropractic, and when will our colleges recognize the need to impart current knowledge to current enrollees?

The blessings of Sacro Occipital Technic are now here in greater force than ever before. We now have concrete proof of change in structure altering change in function. We no longer care if a vertebrae is rotated to the right, in so long as it can function, but when it cannot function by demand, then we care, and then we adjust it toward the normal, but first, we prepare the patient for the return of this vertebrae to a more normal position.

The blocks have made chiropractic a great and dignified profession worthy of scientific investigation by all the scientists in the world. We are no longer a back punching, neck cracking fellowship, but an association of scientists with the knowledge to go forward.