Home Mobilization Options for Patients This is the second part of Dr. Tony Rocklin's focus on mobilization with movement that patients can do independently at home, excerpted from his presentation at OPTA 2016. You can watch the first part of this discussion here, see other excerpts here, or listen to the full one-hour presentation here. One of the challenges in treating patients with hip osteoarthritis is that most insurance companies limit the number of visits for physical therapy they will cover, although it is less expensive than reliance on prescription painkillers and NSAIDs throughout the disease. And because it is incurable and degenerative, patients will need continuing treatment. As a result, best practices for physical therapists working with these patients include...
Mobilization with Movement for Home As May is Arthritis Awareness month, it's worth remembering that 1 out of 5 people in the United States will suffer from hip osteoarthritis during their lifetimes. Hip osteoarthritis is one of the most common chronic illnesses in the US today. Unfortunately, our healthcare system has historically only prescribed pain medications and NSAIDs, use of a cane, weight loss, and independent exercise alone while waiting for it to get bad enough for surgery. The period between diagnosis and hip surgery can be, on average, three to six years. As the OA progresses, pain increases, activity decreases, and patients are increasingly at risk for other co-morbidities related to inactivity such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, addiction,...
The link between extra weight and increased osteoarthritis risk Doctors have historically advised patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis to lose weight in order to lessen the stress on the joints. Now doctors are also advising overweight patients to lose weight to decrease their osteoarthritis risk. The Arthritis Foundation posted this overview on fat and osteoarthritis and discussed the links between osteoarthritis and obesity in a second post. The latter points out "...year after year of obesity fuels a steady barrage of friendly fire that in turn generates low-level chronic inflammation. Not an inflamed immune system, like an infection but a soft drum-beat of immune proteins that over time can damage tissues such as joints, "˜that's insidious because it's continuous,' says Robert...
Starting Conservative Treatment for Hip OA with Physical Therapy For the conservative treatment of hip osteoarthritis to be effective, it must include some level of education, manual therapy, and therapeutic exercise. While over-the-counter(OTC) and prescription painkillers may relieve pain, they do nothing to counteract the progressive tightening of the joint capsule and decreasing range of motion(ROM). This is why physical therapy is so important in the management of hip OA, as it can both relieve the pain and improve mobility, by mobilizing the joint capsule in the hip and relaxing the muscles around it. This reduces patients' need for drugs and improves their ability to move and exercise. That in turn decreases the possibility of other co-morbidities which often accompany...
There is no cure for osteoarthritis, so why bother? No, you can't cure hip osteoarthritis. But yes, physical therapy can treat the secondary effects, including pain, tightness of the muscles around the hip joint, and increasing loss of mobility-related to the progressive tightening of the joint capsule. Physical therapy as conservative therapy has a low profile, and many providers "including surgeons and primary care physicians" don't realize that it can significantly reduce patients' need for drugs and also increase their mobility and tolerance for exercise. This, in turn, decreases the risk of other co-morbidities related to inactivity which often accompany the direct pain and symptoms of hip osteoarthritis. Here's Dr. Tony Rocklin, a longtime proponent of pre-surgical conservative treatment, talking...
