Surgical interventions are always driven by medical reasons — even weight loss surgery. While it certainly resolves specific medical conditions; post-surgery debility can sometimes become crippling. Doctors are increasingly suggesting that patients use physical therapy or physiotherapy to recover faster, and heal better.
Strengthen and Rebuild Muscles
Long hours in bed, and being confined to a room for days after any surgery; except the most minor operations like lancing a pus-filled boil or debridement of a callus in the foot; leads to muscular atrophy, and loss of strength. Strengthening and rebuilding those muscles is vital to regaining one’s previous levels of activity. An expert physiotherapist would advise and oversee the exercises you must perform to restore strength, and rebuild your muscles.
Joint and soft tissue mobilization
Since stiff joints are a common complaint after any major operation, your physiotherapist uses various means such as short wave diathermic (SDW) heat treatment or ultrasonic heat massage to ease them. This is of especially great value after knee or hip replacement surgery. The patient needs to be retaught how to walk without support, which requires retraining the muscles, ligaments, and tendons.
Actions of Daily Living (ADLs) Vital for Recuperating Patient
Such patients need to be have their ADLs normalized at the earliest. Whether it is getting in and out of the bed or a chair post knee or hip replacement surgery, or doing simple actions like walking, dressing, and bathing by oneself becomes a challenge for them. The physiotherapist guides stretching and balancing exercises to restore normalcy to movements.
Seek a Physiotherapist’s Advice Before Surgery
When your physiotherapist is kept in the loop before any major surgery, she would know what your pre-operative fitness levels are, and what your post-operative fitness goals are. This will enable her/him to draw up a plan of care which will reduce pain, while enabling you to regain mobility, especially of the ankles and thighs.
Faster recovery implies a shorter hospital stay
When you begin a physiotherapy regime as soon as the anesthesia wears off, you recover faster. That means you can go home earlier than expected.
Get a Frozen Shoulder Functional
A frozen shoulder is not only very painful, it limits movement and functional ability too. Patients who report stiff shoulders after an accident or a fall, often need to undergo surgery to correct damages. Getting physiotherapy in the post-operative stage enables you to suffer less pain, and be able to pick up things without screaming. Electrical stimulation and heat treatment loosen up tight muscles, thereby relieving pain, and stimulating movement.
Take preventive action
If arthritis runs in the family, or if you have weight issues; you should seek physiotherapeutic help to prevent matters getting worse — or even from occurring.
Prevent falls
Serious injury from falls after surgery can lead to grave consequences like fractures, stitches opening, internal hemorrhage, and even damages to the brain. However, physiotherapy to improve balance should be given to any patients who display signs of vertigo or dizziness, and ensure their safety. In health matters, prevention is better than cure.