Whether you’re having an arthroscopy or a surgery more invasive such as a total knee replacement, both surgeries will require rehabilitation to ensure that pain and inflammation is reduced, and function is optimized.
At Movement Performance Centre, we address these goals by using a combination of innovative technologies combined with manual therapy and exercise.
When coming off surgery, one of the main limitations to rehabilitation is pain and swelling. To address these issues, we utilize 2 pieces of equipment.
1) Game Ready Pro is a modality that utilizes ice and intermittent pneumatic compression to facilitate recovery after an acute injury or surgery. The combination of ice to reduce pain and pneumatic compression to reduce swelling and promote lymphatic flow greatly assists with the rehabilitation process. Users of Game Ready Pro have also reported reduced use of medication or stopped taking medications sooner and provided better post-op recovery when compared to previous surgeries using a different cold therapy.
2) Interferential Current (IFC) is a modality that uses electrical current to reduce pain in the affected area. By stimulating the nerves, this decreases the pain input to the brain. This makes rehabilitation easier as pain becomes less of a limiter to movement. This modality can be used prior to, in combination with exercise, or after a rehabilitation session.
During the rehabilitation process, post operatively, activity limitations are placed on the surgical area. Also, certain exercises can only be employed during a phase of rehabilitation to prevent re-injury of the surrounding tissue or damage to the joint. Consequently, this can lead to atrophy (weakening) of the surrounding muscles.
To counteract the atrophy of muscles, we employ a technique called Blood Flow Restriction Training (BFR). BFR is a unique tool that can either maintain or stimulate muscle growth without requiring significant stress to the muscles and joints. This is a great alternative for rehabilitation until the muscles and joints have healed from surgery and the activity limitations are no longer present
Progressing through the stages of rehabilitation, we utilize Keiser equipment to safely and effectively restore function of the affected joint. Keiser equipment uses a pneumatic system that provides 3 major benefits:
1) Provides constant resistance through the whole motion of the exercise. This ensures that the muscles are being fully developed and that there are no gaps of weakness throughout the motion.
2) Reduces Stress on the joints: constant resistance throughout the whole motion of exercise prevents high impact loading when starting and stopping the weight.
3) Using pneumatic resistance vs barbells requires more control from the body to perform the movement. This has more carryover into daily life as our body must stay in control and balanced instead of relying on external supports.
Interested in learning more about how we get people back to normal function? Message us or give us a call, and we’ll be glad to answer your questions.
Author: Zachary Hum MScPT BAKin
