You are in: Home > Articles
29th Aug, 2010. 19:15 BST by Dr.C.A.Jenner MB BS, FRCA, FFPMRCA . Permalink.
A brief guide to the role of physiotherapy in pain management and rehabilitation.
Physiotherapy can be an integral part of any rehabilitation process. It is critical to recovery because there is a need to strengthen the muscles and area that is painful and ensure that the condition is improved.
Physiotherapy can also provide patients with information about how they can avoid a repeat of the injury or condition that has caused the pain in the first instance. So using physiotherapy can help patients to retain their health and also to have core stability and inner strength. It is also about much more than exercises; physiotherapy has definitely moved on!
However, there is another often unrecognised aspect to physiotherapy and that is that it can provide a person focussed regime and programme that is wholly geared towards your own individual needs.
Although two people can share the same condition, they may well experience it differently. If two people have sciatica, they may share the same symptoms, but it may well affect them quite differently. This does not mean that one can withstand pain and the other one cannot but it does mean that the two people are individuals with individual bodies and individual conditions.
Physiotherapy is very much about tailoring an individual programme of exercises and stretches to help an individual, rather than a set of exercises designed for a generic group. So each person is offered a multi-disciplinary assessment, with physiotherapy playing a pivotal role in assessing the individual patient and devising a way of ensuring that they return to full health as soon as possible and that they do not have a recurrence of the condition/injury.
Exercises that are designed for individuals and following an in depth, lengthy and comprehensive support can really assist with the speed of recovery. Patients can also have regular contact with physiotherapists so they can input into the process of recovery and also have control of their programme; the days of physiotherapists being seen as rather intransigent professionals have long since gone.
Also long gone are the days when a physiotherapist had an exercise bench, a treatment couch and a couple of other pieces of equipment. Physiotherapy is now very advanced!
There are many different techniques and equipment used in the field of physiotherapy currently. There are techniques such as ultrasound which is used for tissue healing. Interferential, often called IFT is used for stimulating muscles, pain relief, reducing the retention of fluids in the body as well as helping blood flow within a specific area.
Sometimes two different therapies or techniques may be combined so that they act in synergy and are actually more beneficial than simply using one therapy or technique.
Shortwave, sometimes referred to as continuous shortwave is a way of healing tissues within a specific area. Another tissue healing therapy is laser therapy, which is extremely beneficial.
So the range of therapies and treatments that can be offered by a physiotherapist, combined with the dreaded exercises, really can promote healing in ways that were almost unthinkable 15 or 20 years ago.
‘Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation For Pain Management’ was posted by Dr.C.A.Jenner MB BS, FRCA, FFPMRCA on 29th August 2010 at 19:15 BST and filed under pending.
.jpg)
Subscribe to RSS for Articles . What is RSS?
© London Pain Consultants 2006. Telephone: 0845 045 0250.