Category: Surgical Rehab

Physical Therapy Clinic in West BloomfieldBlogSurgical Rehab
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By manish 0 Comments Health and Wellness, Physical Therapy, Post Surgery, Surgical Rehab

Do you have an upcoming surgery? 3 Reasons to attend post-surgical rehab for a better recovery.

Every year, our physical therapy team meets thousands of individuals recovering from surgery. Whether you’re undergoing a joint replacement, a back surgery, or some other procedure, we’re confident that working with a physical therapist can help you heal up and get back to your active lifestyle as efficiently and safely as possible.

Curious about why physical therapy is so important in the post-surgical window? We’ve got three reasons to pique your interest.

1. Control and minimize your pain.

A physical therapist can teach you exercises, provide manual interventions like massage, and implement non-invasive modalities that can work together alleviate your pain and even reduce your reliance on pain-relieving medications, including opioids. Many of the interventions we provide in physical therapy work directly on the central nervous system to help modulate pain signals being sent to your brain, while others help reduce inflammation, swelling, and stiffness.

Of course, pain is normal and expected following certain types of procedures, including hip and knee replacements, and taking your pain medication as prescribed can help you participate in your physical therapy more fully. So, it’s important to talk to your doctor about your pain medication options and not to stop or start taking anything without his or her input.

That said, research shows that physical therapy is a safe alternative or beneficial component to effective pain management in the post-surgical window. So be sure to talk to your doctor about setting up a referral to see a physical therapist, too!

2. Reduce the risk of complications.

Any surgery comes with at least some level of risk for complications including post-operative bleeding, infections, range of motion limitations, and hardware malfunction. Working with a physical therapist may help reduce the likelihood of experiencing a complication, which reduces stress, saves money, and protects your short-term and long-term health.

For example, physical therapists are skilled in teaching you safe ways to move and function in your daily life. If your surgeon requests that you follow certain precautions or activity restrictions for a while following your operation, your physical therapist can teach you how to follow these restrictions and progress or modify them appropriately as time goes on. Physical therapists can also prescribe and fit adaptive equipment such as walkers and braces to further protect your healing tissues and help you mobilize more safely.

Your physical therapist can also act as a supportive liaison between you and your surgeon and keep him or her updated with your progress and needs. This way, if any concerns arise there can be faster communication between all the need-to-know members of your medical team.

3. Accelerate your recovery.

Our bodies are incredibly powerful and capable of healing themselves. The type of non-invasive and drug-free services and techniques a physical therapist can offer can enhance self-healing power and work with the body—instead of just covering up symptoms. And by minimizing pain and reducing the risk of complications, your physical therapy team can help you stay on track during your recovery period so you can regain and maximize your strength, balance, range of motion, endurance, and overall function as quickly as possible.

It’s never too early to start seeing a physical therapist! Contact Premier Therapy Centers today to schedule an appointment for your post-surgical rehabilitation.

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By manish 0 Comments Surgical Rehab

Pre and Post Surgical Rehab: What Is It, and Is It Really Important?

Scheduling Surgery? Don’t Forget the Pre-Operative and Post-Operative Rehab

Surgery might not be as much certainty in life like death or taxes, but many of us will undergo some kind of surgical procedure. If you will be scheduling major surgery in the near future, give serious thought to scheduling two other important tasks: pre-operative and post-operative rehab. Physical rehabilitation both before and after surgery can have a huge positive impact on your ability to recuperate more quickly and completely. Let’s examine what goes into these two forms of physical training and how our physical therapist can use them to optimize your surgical success.

The Sensible Strategy of “Pre-Hab”

Pre-surgical rehabilitation belongs to a category of preventative care known as “pre-hab.” The purpose of pre-hab is to get the body as ready as possible for a challenging situation. Athletes often undergo pre-hab to help them prepare for a grueling sporting event that might cause injury to weak muscles or connective tissues.

This strategy makes just as much sense for individuals who expect to undergo surgery. If, for example, you need to have reconstructive surgery on your knee, you might engage in several weeks of physical therapy exercise to maximize the knee’s flexibility, strength, and overall wellness before your surgery date approaches. This preparation allows the knee to withstand the surgery itself more easily and pave the way for a smooth recovery.

Rehabilitative Physical Therapy to Help You Heal

After you’ve had your surgery, you’ll want to schedule a course of post-surgical rehabilitation to continue the good work you started with pre-hab. It’s important to get moving again, to whatever degree is considered safe and beneficial, as soon as possible after your procedure. Post-surgical physical therapy offers a controlled environment for a swifter, less complicated recuperation by:

  • Helping muscles regain their strength and function
  • Ensuring that your joints regain their preoperative flexibility and range of motion
  • Easing your post-operative discomfort naturally by boosting blood flow and encouraging fluid drainage
  • Re-training you to use a part of your body that was unusable before the surgery
  • Discouraging the development of unwanted scar tissue (which might interfere with muscle, skin or connective tissue motion, leaving you with long-term pain and stiffness)
  • Helping you regain your balance after an extended period off of your feet

Our Physical Therapist Can Help you Have a More Successful Surgery

Our physical therapist can discuss your current health status and impending surgery with you and then figure out a detailed “battle plan” that includes both preoperative and post-operative rehabilitation. You’ll want to allow several weeks, at a minimum before your procedure so that you have time to engage in the necessary pre-hab regimen. Strength and flexibility training may feature prominently in your pre-hab.

At a reasonable interval following your surgery, you can begin your post-operative physical therapy program. In addition to strength and range-of-motion exercises, you may benefit from stability training, Kinesio taping, massage therapy, cold laser therapy, cryotherapy, or electrical muscle stimulation. These techniques can complement each other to provide synergistic healing effects.

Whatever pre-surgical and post-surgical rehabilitation routine you undertake, it’s definitely worth undertaking. A study of knee construction surgery patients revealed that those patients who went through pre-hab and post-operative rehab didn’t just heal more quickly after their surgery — they continued to enjoy better long-term results (for up to two years afterward) than the patients who didn’t experience rehabilitation. If that sounds like the kind of outcome you want, you owe it to yourself to contact our physical therapist at Premier Therapy Center in Bloomfield, MI!

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