Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40922944›Full record

ReviewCureus2025

The Spinal Facilitation Hypothesis and Reflex Arcs in Modern Osteopathic Medicine.

Bruno Bordoni, Marta Simonelli, Bruno Morabito, Allan R Escher

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Bruno BordoniPhysical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Foundation Don Carlo Gnocchi, Milan, ITA.
Marta SimonelliNeuroscience, Mental Health and Sensory Organs (NESMOS), Sapienza University of Rome, Roma, ITA.
Bruno MorabitoPhysical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli, Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Roma, ITA.
Allan R EscherOncologic Sciences, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The spinal cord is an organ capable of sending and receiving a lot of biological and electrical information. It is not just a sending and receiving channel, but a living structure capable of autonomously processing the afferent and efferent notifications with which it comes into contact. The osteopathic neurological model includes the concept of facilitation of the spinal segment, that is, a reflex arc that is established in a spinal segment between two visceral and/or somatic structures, creating a loop of chronicity. This mechanism that implies a reflex arc would explain the somatic symptoms coming from a visceral disorder, or vice versa, involving the specific neural segment of visceral and somatic innervation. Such a reflex arc, due to the bioelectrical complexity of the nervous system, may not occur. The article briefly reviews some concepts of neurophysiology to raise new reflections on whether or not to consider the hypothesis of the facilitated segment and to have a different vision in clinical pictures that are not always easy to frame.

Indexed as

manual therapyosteopathic manipulative medicineosteopathypainspinal cord

Identifiers

PMID40922944
PMCPMC12414516

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.