What can physical therapy help with?

What Can Physical Therapy Help With?

Physical therapists can provide supplementary treatment to a wide variety of medical conditions, depending on their specialty.

Physical therapists treat musculoskeletal conditions and work to optimize recovery or educate a person on how to optimize their movement patterns.

Some conditions that our physical therapists specializein include:

• Post- op Rehab, including total knee replacements, labrum repairs, menisectomy, spinal fusion.

• Conditions that affect the hand, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, and trigger finger.

• Musculoskeletal dysfunction, including back pain, rotator cuss tears, and knee pain.

• Sports-related injuries, such as tennis elbow, achilles tendonitis, ACL tears.

• Chronic pain.

• Hypermobility, leading to joint instability and pain.

Physical Therapy Guide to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Physical Therapy Guide to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common condition that causes pain, numbness, and weakness in the wrist and hand. CTS can affect the use of the entire arm. It is caused by pressure on the nerve at the base of the palm (median nerve). Because of the constant demands people place on their hands and wrists, surgery may be needed when symptoms are severe. For many people with CTS, however, physical therapy treatment can relieve pain and numbness. It often can help restore normal hand, wrist, and arm use without the need for surgery.

Physical therapists are movement experts. They improve quality of life through hands-on care, patient education, and prescribed movement. Please let us know if we can help you or a loved one evaluate and treta CTS!

Manual Therapy for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome {Walnut Creek} {Physical Therapy}

The authors of a new study on carpal tunnel syndrome show that patients returned earlier to their activities of daily living and work when they receive manual therapy versus those who receive surgery. At one year the results between manual therapy and surgery were similar, but at 1 month they were significantly better in the manual therapy group.

Conservative treatment often includes everything from splints, steroid injections, lasers, and other treatments that are lumped with “physical therapy”. But this study shows that it is manual therapy that may do the most benefit.

Manual therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome consists of releasing the tissues around the median nerve that are causing the symptom. The nerve travels all the way from the cervical spine to the hand. Too often practitioners only treat the area surrounding the carpal tunnel symptoms, and fail to consider the more proximal nerve entrapment sites.

The Effectiveness of Manual Therapy Versus Surgery on Self-reported Function, Cervical Range of Motion, and Pinch Grip Force in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Fernández-de-Las-Peñas C. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2017 Mar;47(3):151-161. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2017.7090. Epub 2017 Feb 3.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28158963