Luigi Stecco (Author), Carla Stecco (Author)

Welcome to an exciting new field in musculoskeletal therapy: the world of fascia. Fascia forms a continuous tensional network throughout the human body, covering and connecting every single organ, every muscle, and even every nerve or tiny muscle fiber. After several decades of severe neglect, this ubiquitous tissue has transformed from the “Cinderella of orthopaedic science” into an almost super star position within medical research. Let me therefore introduce you to the newly proposed definition of fascia proposed at the first Fascia Research Congress. The term ‘fascia’ here describes the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body. This includes not only dense planar tissue sheets (like septa, joint capsules, aponeuroses, organ capsules, or retinacula), which may be also called “proper fascia”, but it also encompasses local densifications of this network in the form of ligaments and tendons. Additionally it includes softer collagenous connective tissues like the superficial fascia or the innermost intramuscular layer of the endomysium. While not everybody will be happy with this new terminology, it offers many important advantages for the field. Rather than having to draw most often arbitrary demarcation lines between joint capsules and their intimately involved ligaments and tendons (as well as interconnected aponeuroses, retinacula and intramuscular fasciae), fascial tissues are seen as one interconnected tensional network that adapts its fiber arrangement and density according to local tensional demands. This terminology fits nicely to the Latin root of the term ‘fascia’ (bundle, bandage, strap, unification, binding together) and is synonymous with the non-professional’s understanding of the term “connective tissue” (in contrast to medical and biological scientists, which include cartilage, bone and even blood as connective tissue).

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