Broken ankle and hand physical therapy

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Broken ankle and hand physical therapy

Physical Therapy for Broken Ankle

Broken ankles can greatly limit your ability to perform basic functional tasks such as running and walking. This painful injury can cause loss of strength of the lower extremities, range of motion, and pain. This damage can make your normal daily activities difficult or impossible. You can benefit from physical therapy after a broken ankle to help you fully restore functional mobility and to return to your previous level of activity.

Your ankle is the joint where the talus foot and tibia bone (shin) and foot fibula are connected and moving. Trauma here can cause damage to one or all of these bones and significant pain usually occurs immediately after injury. If you suspect a broken bone in your ankle, your first step should be to seek medical attention immediately. Failure to do so can result in a significant loss of function.

Foot fractures almost always occur during traumatic events to the body. Car accidents, falls, and sports injuries can all cause ankle fractures. Common signs of ankle fractures include pain, swelling, bruising, and the inability to bear weight on a broken ankle.

What to Expect After a Ankle Fracture

When in the hospital after an ankle fracture, your doctor will try to reduce the fracture.

Bone pieces must be placed close to each other so that healing can occur. Fracture reduction is very important to ensure that the bones recover correctly and that permanent loss or functional defects are avoided.

After the fracture of your ankle is reduced, your ankle will most likely be placed in a cast. This paralyzes the ankles and allows the bones to heal properly. Often after an ankle fracture, you will need some kind of aids to walk. You may also be under certain weight restraints. Be sure to ask your doctor how much weight you are allowed to wear on your ankle when he is cured.

Physical therapy

After the fracture is reduced and does not move, you may be referred to physical therapy to learn how to use your tools such as crutches, canes, or walking aids. Your physical therapist must also be able to help you understand the limits that hold your weight. Soft exercises for the knee and hip muscles can be done to ensure that the muscle groups that help you walk do not become too weak while the fractures heal. If you are using casts or supports, chances are that you will not do exercises for your ankles.

After your broken ankle has healed, your doctor will release the cast and allow you to bear more weight on your ankle. You might still use a tool like a quad stick or crutch to walk.

At this point, your physical therapist can fully evaluate your ankle to help provide proper care. The evaluation component of the ankle can include:

- Gait

- Range of motion

- strength

- Swelling

- Pain

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Assessment of scars (if you undergo ORIF surgery)

After a thorough evaluation, your physical therapist can start providing care. He can use therapeutic modalities such as heat, ice, or electrical stimulation to help treat swelling or pain around your ankle.

Exercise

The ankle fracture training program must be a major component of your ankle rehabilitation after a fracture. Exercises can include:

- Exercise for range of ankle motion

- ankle strengthening exercises

- Hip and knee exercises (to help improve walking ability)

- Balance training and proprioception

Exercise to improve functional mobility and walking ability

Wolff's law states that bones grow and change shape in response to the pressure given to them. Your physical therapist can help prescribe exercises that apply the right stress in the right direction to ensure that maximum bone healing occurs and your broken ankle will function properly.

Gait exercises will also be important after ankle fractures. Your physical therapist can help you grow from using a tool to walking independently. Typical developments for walking after ankle fractures include:

- Using a standard or wheeled walker

- Use two sticks to walk

- Using one stick

- Using a standard stick

- Walk without help

If you have had surgery to reduce your ankle fracture, there may be scarring around the incision. Your physical therapist can do scar tissue massage and mobilization to help improve scar mobility. He can also teach you how to do the grated massage technique yourself.

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Rehabilitation After Broken Wrist

Starting from Physical Therapy

Physical therapy, if the doctor feels it is necessary, usually begins after the cast is removed about six weeks after the fracture occurs. At this point the pain must be reduced and the wrist has entered the healing process. The doctor will evaluate whether the bone is safe enough to start physical therapy. If the therapy starts too early, you can risk injuring your wrist again.

Benefits

Wrist training is used to restore muscle strength, mobility and function lost after injury. Therapy cannot cure the initial fracture, but repetitive load activity can work to build stronger and denser bones. This is an important factor in preventing future injuries. Because wrist fractures often occur in older people, therapy may be ongoing to increase bone density. In this case, low-impact exercises such as swimming are usually recommended.

Exercise

The wrist joint operates like a hinge, and the most common exercise, known as extension / flexion, involves bending the wrist up and down on the hinge. As healing progresses, you can do this exercise with the burden on your hands to strengthen the muscles more. The wrist also has limited side-to-side movements, known as wrist irregularities. The third movement, supination / pronation, involves turning the arms up and down. Other exercises include stretching your fingers, squeezing tennis balls / handrails or stretching prayers. You can also do isometric exercises, which are exercises without muscle contraction, just by pushing your unmoving hand. Each of these movements is an important part of the initial stages of physical therapy. However, a medical professional is needed to make training recommendations and demonstrate the right mechanics. Physical therapy is usually done in an outpatient setting and must be monitored. You might be able to start a home program after you learn the right forms and routines.

Settlement

Therapy is usually done once you have achieved full recovery of mobility and strength, after which you can continue to exercise regularly. It takes one year to fully recover from a wrist fracture. However, the exact duration of therapy depends on the extent of the injury, the type of treatment received and your body's response to the treatment. Rehabilitation can be delayed from persistent stiffness, nerve or blood vessel damage and osteoarthritis, which is caused by a fracture that extends to joints or a pre-existing problem. Remaining wrist problems can be permanent.