Surgery is often viewed as the treatment option that will take care of your pain once and for all, but surgery alone isn’t what’s going to drive functional improvement. In fact, for some operations, how you rehab after surgery is more important than the operation itself. That’s because physical therapy helps improve a number of key physical functions at a crucial point in your recovery. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at four ways in which physical therapy can help ensure you make the fullest recovery after a surgical procedure.
PT Benefits After Surgery
Here’s a look at four functions that physical therapy can help improve while your body is working to recover following an operation.
- Flexibility and Range of Motion – One of the most common functional losses after an injury is flexibility and range of motion. If you suffer a disc herniation in your neck or tear your Achilles, you’re not going to have as much range of motion in the area. Surgery can help address the problem, but you’re still going to need to go through flexibility training to get the area back to normal range of motion. Even if the loss of range of motion isn’t painful, it can limit your ability to perform some normal functions, so work hard with a physical therapist to restore flexibility after an operation.
- Balance – Surgery can help correct an issue that is causing balance problems, but surgery alone won’t fix your balance ability. Physical therapy will help to strengthen key structures that aid in your balance and provide stabilization for crucial areas in your hips, legs and feet. One area of your body may be weaker as a result of the surgery or your reliance on the uninjured side of your body, and these muscular imbalances can throw off your body’s ability to keep you upright. Work with a physical therapist to improve strength, stability and your overall balance.
- Reduce Potential Scar Tissue – The tissue that forms in an area that has been cut in order to access the surgical site is a little different than normal tissue. This scar tissue is a little more fibrous, and based on how it forms it can easily envelop structures or nerves in the area. This can cause a whole new set of problems including loss of flexibility and chronic nerve pain. Physical therapy helps to break up this tissue as it forms so that it’s less likely to affect nearby structures. There is a window of time when this tissue can be successfully manipulated. After it has formed, physical therapy may not be enough to free compressed structures, so timely physical therapy after surgery is key.
- Decreases Swelling – Swelling is your body’s natural response to injury and trauma, but swelling can also slow down the healing process. Swelling and inflammation need to be controlled in order to help speed up your recovery, and physical therapy can do just that. Controlled movements can reduce swelling, improve area function and bring more healthy blood to the surgical site, which will help to continue the healing process. Decreasing swelling can also help alleviate pain that could develop as a result of nerve or tissue compression.
So if you are scheduled to have a surgery in the future, know that physical therapy is likely in your future. It’s an important part of your recovery!
