In Patient Rehab

Article by Rehab on the Net

Restoring strength and mobility after surgery or injury seems daunting, and it is difficult to know what to do when you are in pain. Do I push through, do I rest, how much activity is enough?

Total hip replacement has grown to become a fairly routine operation aimed at alleviating the pain symptoms brought about by hip arthritis, and is widely considered as one of the medical procedures that give the most improvement when it comes to easing discomfort and pain. The procedure is typically performed on the elderly, although operations on younger people, most notably athletes, are not unheard of. Total hip replacement however, is just one part of what needs to be done in order to be healthy once again. Oftentimes, many patients still end up with some level of discomfort because they neglected to go through physiotherapy after the operation.

A patient suffering from osteoarthritis in his hip joint often experiences a significant degree of pain and disability around the joint area before the operation is performed. Depending on how long the joint is placed under stress, the tissues and muscles that surround it can undergo changes that will determine the kind of postoperative treatment a patient receives. The natural reaction to pain and weakness in a muscle or joint is to use it less, or to totally immobilize it. This often results in patients losing the ability to move the joint to the ends of its movement.

In the case of hip joints, it’s important that the patient regains the ability to move them in different ranges after the hip replacement surgery. Physiotherapy is often a painful process, and the phrase “No pain, no gain” could not be any more appropriate. If a patient wants to be able to do mundane tasks such as walk, get up from a chair, go up and down the stairs, and run, physiotherapy is something that must not be ignored.