Earlier this year I was able to travel to the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System at the Main Hospital Campus in Reno, Nevada. I provided an educational in-service to the rehabilitation team regarding how HipTrac can help with the care of their veterans in clinic and at home. During this visit, we also discussed how HipTrac can be used to provide unilateral lumbar traction to the patient. HipTrac was created to be able to provide isolated traction to the hip joint in cases where the patient had a sensitive lumbar spine that did not tolerate traction well. For example, a case in which the veteran has hip osteoarthritis which likes traction, but a grade III spondylolisthesis at L4/5 that...
Patients with hip pathology In this excerpt from his discussion at OPTA 2016, Dr. Tony Rocklin reviews soft tissue releases, strengthening, and biomechanics as part of conservative treatment of intra-articular hip pathology. He also discusses his approach to starting new patients on therapeutic exercises and giving them the "tools" to participate in improving their own condition – and explains how positive reinforcement of small improvements can keep them engaged. Tony also covers the importance of educating new patients on pain and setting expectations on the results they can expect from their course of treatment. Watch this final segment below and see previous installments here. Conservative treatment that isn't "drug-centric" Dr. Rocklin is a leading advocate for conservative treatment that isn't...
Changes in our healthcare system come slowly Nothing changes quickly in our healthcare system; change is a marathon, not a sprint. Now that we've finally recognized the opioid epidemic, individual states are taking steps to stem their overuse. Patients with chronic pain – and their doctors – are looking for other ways to deal with their pain, and one of those ways is physical therapy. In fact, one of the most common sources of chronic pain is hip osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease that strikes more than 1 out of every 5 Americans. But not many primary care doctors are aware that physical therapy can relieve the pain and other symptoms of hip OA – before surgery becomes an option. And...
Physical Therapy Helps Many Physical therapists who work with patients diagnosed with hip osteoarthritis know that education, manual therapy and therapeutic exercise can provide significant pain relief and improvements in ROM for many of them. However, there hasn't been sufficient research into the factors that can predict which patients will respond and by how much, when attending physical therapy. This is important because hip osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes of chronic pain, and chronic pain has often (too often!) been treated with opioids and NSAIDs, rather than physical therapy. As the healthcare system evaluates "pre-habilitation" "“ physical therapy before surgery in place of opioids "“ knowing who will benefit most would speed the process. Predicting Patient Response...
More Self-Mobilization Options for Patients This is the third part of Dr. Tony Rocklin's focus on mobilization with movement that patients can independently do at home. This discussion is excerpted from Tony's presentation at OPTA 2016. You can watch the first part of this discussion here, the second part here, and other excerpts here. Or listen to the full one-hour presentation here. Dr. Rocklin is one of the leading advocates for the efficacy of conservative treatment for patients with hip osteoarthritis, regardless of whether they are preparing for, waiting for, or not candidates for hip replacement surgery. Physical therapy that combines education, manual therapy, and therapeutic exercise can both relieve the pain and improve joint mobility, enabling the patient to...
