hydrotherapy treatment & lower limb joint replacement

[cookiemonster4282]

has anyone got any suggestions for treatment sessions with patients with a lower limb joint replacement?Would be great to hear from anyone ASAP!!!!

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[aworth]

Hip and knee replacements do really well in the pool. You work them at a depth that suits the level of weight-bearing the surgeon allows and go from there. Look at what your goals are eg range of movement, muscle strength and use the buoyancy and flow and impedence to movement to get what you want.

[NARSTR]

Yes - they do very well in the pool and some centres put the clients into water within 2 weeks. The benefits of ROM work and strengthening do carry over to land.

[imported_hctjudy]

We put our Total knees and hips into the pool day 3-4 post surgery. They wear a waterproof dressing and we are fastidious regarding the chemistry, and would cancel patients if levels not OK. We do a combination of standing, walking and supine exercises for ROM, strength, Stability and function and also look at balance. Some patients will swim day 6-7 with close supervision. we use flippers for kicking on the pool plinth (bed) from Day 5-6 if the patient has met our anticapted outcomes to that point. A physio in our parctice has done a study to show the benift of this approach. It fulfilled masters requirements and I believe will now be used as a basis for a PHD. It was presented as a poster presentation at the Australian Physiotherapy Association conference in Sydney May 2002