The benefits of physiotherapy

Rehabilitation and recovery are key goals for people who suffer from a disability due to injury or illness. This could be spinal damage, or damage to a limb that has severely impeded someone’s ability to move like they used to.

London Bridge Hospital Outpatients explains why physiotherapy is so effective in injury rehabilitation and how it can be a huge help to people with disabilities that hinder movement.

Why use physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is an incredibly versatile area of medicine, which encompasses a number of different techniques, designed to ease pain and restore mobility to limbs and joints.

This means that in the events of damage or injury to these areas physiotherapy either makes up a large part of the initial treatment, or if surgery is required, a major component of rehabilitation and recovery.

How it helps

Physiotherapy can help to restore movement through specific exercises dependant on the sort of injury and the area it affects. This can include:

• Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy – this can be used to help in the recovery from day-to-day injuries; this includes injuries caused by trauma, lifestyle or work, such as back and neck pain, muscle strains and sprains.
• Sports Physiotherapy – can help people to recover from sporting injuries and enhance sports performance.
• Women’s Health Physiotherapy – these treatments are used to treat problems occurring within the pelvic floor and pelvis.
• Hand Therapy – carried out to help with symptoms arising from hand injuries, such as work accidents or long-term chronic conditions.
• Neuro Outpatient Physiotherapy – used to help with physical problems caused from a neurological injury or condition, such as a head jury or stroke.

Specialised equipment is also used in order to help with specific rehabilitation techniques depending on the injury, condition or specific needs of an individual patient.

These can include specific equipment to help patients exercise if they can’t support their own weight, or if they have difficulty walking. Resistance trainers to help build up strength and functional trainers to help improve the strength and function of a specific limb.

Physiotherapy can take the form of catered exercise, helping to improve the strength in limbs, assist in refining or regaining movement and help to alleviate pain and manage recovery.

Rehabilitation under qualified and experienced supervision means that the treatments prescribed are suitable for each patient and work towards a specific goal, often tailored to specific levels of ability in order to achieve a long term benefit in terms of reduced pain, improved movement or successful rehabilitation from an injury.

Its versatility, scalability and the access to specialised equipment means that physiotherapy is one of the most effective means of rehabilitating injuries and getting patients back on their feet.