Common Conditions that require Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation

• ACL Tear: The anterior cruciate ligament, or "ACL", is a ligament inside your knee that connects the lower leg bone (the tibia) to the thigh bone (the femur.) A twisting or hyperextension of the knee can tear this ligament. Normally this requires surgery in active people to reconstruct the ligament to prevent excessive knee movement. If someone has a sedentary lifestyle, sometimes surgery is not necessary.
• Physical therapy is used before and after surgery, or even if the person is not having surgery, to restore movement of the knee joint, to increase strength in the muscles around the knee, and to reduce inflammation and swelling.
  
  
• Meniscus Tear: Each knee has two menisci. The menisci are fibro cartilage discs that act like shock absorbers in the knee joint. Sometimes a twisting injury can tear the meniscus, but sometimes they tear over time with wear and tear. A meniscus tear may or may not require surgery. The surgery for a meniscus tear can be sewing it back together, but the most common surgery is to clip the torn piece off like a hangnail.
• Physical therapy for a meniscal tear, or for meniscal surgery, consists of restoring movement of the knee joint, increasing strength in the muscles around the knee, and reducing inflammation and swelling.
  
  
  
• Arthritis: Arthritis has a lot of names. Degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, and "wear and tear" all mean the same thing. (Rheumatoid arthritis is something else.) Arthritis means inflammation in a joint. This inflammation can come from a lot of sources. Any joint can have arthritis, but the most common joints are the knees, the neck and back joints, and the hips.
• Physical Therapy works to develop better strength around the inflamed joint to protect it, and better muscle flexibility to decrease the stress on the joint. The therapist will also use manual techniques to restore normal movement of the joint, and modalities to help control the inflammation.
  
  
• Tendinitis: Tendinitis means inflammation in a tendon. This is a cycle that starts with the tendon being under more stress than it is used to. This may be because you started a new activity, gained weight, wore poor shoes, or just overdid it. This weakens the tendon and makes it susceptible to more injury, which weakens it farther, and makes it more susceptible to injury!
• In order to break the cycle of tendonitis, physical therapy will determine why there was too much stress on the tendon in the first place. The PT will teach you exercises to help balance the forces on the tendon, and will use manual techniques and modalities to help decrease the inflammation in the tendon.
  
  
• Rotator cuff tear: The rotator cuff is a group of four little muscles that stabilize the shoulder joint. A rotator cuff tear can happen suddenly with a fall, but usually happens over time with wear and tear. Sometimes your surgeon will recommend surgery to sew the tear back together, but if it is a little tear or if you don't use your arm over your head very often, usually the doctor will recommend physical therapy first.
• The physical therapist will use manual therapy to help your shoulder move better, teach you exercises to help strengthen your shoulder, and use modalities like ice or ultrasound to help control your pain and inflammation.
  
  
  
  
• Disc Herniation: This is what we used to call a "slipped disc." Between all the bones of the spine, there is a thick disc to act like a shock absorber. This disc has a gooey center. If there are cracks in the tough outer part of the disc, the gooey center can escape. This puts pressure on the other structures around the disc. If the gooey material leaks out enough to put pressure on a nerve, it can send pain all or part of the way down your leg if the problem is in your back or down your arm if the problem is in your neck.
• The physical therapist will do manual therapy and use modalities like electrical stimulation to help you feel better, and teach you exercises that can help put the gooey material back in its place. After you are feeling better, the therapist will teach you about posture and about exercises for your muscles to make sure the problem doesn't come back.