A physical medicine discipline often offered to those recovering from accident or illness, physical rehabilitation is a term that’s difficult to define. Because physical rehabilitation is such a broad topic, it’s difficult to sum up in a succinct definition. Helpful to a broad spectrum of patients, physical rehabilitation practices cover a wide variety of conditions.
A reasonable way to define the process of physical rehabilitation is to say that it is a way of helping patients to regain function and independence, while addressing limitations they might face after they’ve been through an illness, accident or another major life change. To further clarify, you can divide physical rehabilitation into five broad categories: orthopedic, cardiopulmonary, neurological, pediatric, and geriatric. One significant fact about physical rehabilitation that sets it apart from other medical practices is that it uses non-surgical procedures, and avoids extraneous medication, to address patients’ problems, and help them rise to the challenges they face.
A team of healthcare professionals works together to do the work of physical rehabilitation. These medical experts include the patient’s primary care doctor, a specialist called a physiatrist, one or more physical therapists, and sometimes occupational therapists as well. A physiatrist is a highly educated physician who has had training in physical medicine and rehabilitation, including the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and acute and chronic pain syndromes, electro-diagnostic medicine, (used to diagnose neurological disorders), and rehabilitation for functional impairment and disability. It’s likely that a physiatrist will make the diagnoses and prescribe the therapies necessary for a patient’s physical rehabilitation, while physical therapists will serve as the practitioners who work with the patients to put these therapies into practice.
Typically performed as out-patient services, often performed at a physical rehabilitation center, physical rehabilitation services can help people who have suffered a major trauma, like an amputation or another mobility- impairing condition. Other patients who have not encountered such extreme physical challenges may be facing other difficulties instead, often just as traumatic. Physical rehabilitation has applications that address a wide range of medical conditions, including arthritis, cancer, fibromyalgia, sports injuries, work-related injuries, back pain, osteoporosis, and more. Physical rehabilitation employed by Cobb Pain and Rehab include:
- manual therapy
- ultrasound therapy
- heat therapy
- ice therapy
- electrical stimulation
- exercise
If you have a problem for which physical rehabilitation has been recommended, Cobb Pain and Rehab has an experienced, friendly, and knowledgeable team of therapists ready to help you address your challenges and recover from your condition. With years of experience rehabilitating patients from injuries and ailments, the physiotherapists at Cobb Pain and Rehab offer natural treatment, without surgery or medication. In addition, patients are educated in how to be proactive in their own recovery and avoid further injury. For more information, visit CobbPainandRehab.com.