Osteopathy is of a large domain. It can be classified into the following sorts.

Congenital bone malformation:
It mainly refers to some congenital diseases of the bone and articulation, including developmental disorders of the bone and articulation, congenital defects of the spine and the limbs. The causative factors have not been completely understood now. It is mostly due to the abnormalities of fetal development, with a remarkable family history in some cases. The common ones are bone and joint maldevelopment, congenital neck diseases, congenital spinal malformation, and congenital limb malformation.

Carbuncle of the bone:
This is a kind of suppurative infective disease resulting from the invasion of pyogenic bacteria in the bones and joints. It is mostly caused by dissemination of the residual toxin, invasion of the exogenous six pathogenic factors, internal injuries of the seven emotions, and sexual overstrain. The commonly encountered carbuncles are acute pyogenic osteomyelitis, suppurative arthritis and bone syphilis.

Tuberculosis of the bone and joint:
This is a kind of destructive chronic pyogenic disease caused by invasion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the bone and joint. The diseases, commonly seen in children and youth, are mostly due to infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on the basis of constitutional asthenia of the liver and kidney or injury of the spleen and kidney from acquired malnutrition. Clinically, there are simple bone tuberculosis, simple synovial tuberculosis and panarticular tuberculosis. Tuberculosis may occur in both the joints and bones of the whole body.

Osteoarticular Bi-syndrome:  
This is a kind of disease with symptoms of muscular and articular aching, numbness, heaviness and swelling, and limited movement of the joint resulting from impaired circulation of qi and blood in the meridians by the exogenous pathogenic wind, cold, dampness and heat. Included are rheumatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gouty arthritis, traumatic arthritis, menopausal arthritis, neurodermatitis, intra-articular corpus liberum, articular synovitis, psoriatic arthritis, and hemophilic arthritis.

Wei-syndrome:
This is a kind of disease with symptoms of flaccidity of the body, thin muscles, and weakness and numbness of the limbs caused by invasion of pathogenic factors on the body, trauma, or weakness of the healthy qi. Included are polyneuritis, dermatomyositis, infantile paralysis, cerebral paralysis, hemiparalysis, paraplegia, myopathic paralysis and myoatrophy.

Tendon spasm:  
This is a kind of disease with articular dysfunction resulting from continuous contraction of the muscle or loss of normal elasticity due to contracture of the skin, joint capsule or ligament caused by congenital disturbance of development, trauma, ischemia, and invasion of pathogenic factors. Included are ischemic contracture, contracture of the musculus flexor digitorum, contracture of the aponeurosis palmaris, contracture of the iliotibial band, and contracture of the joint.