Ankylosing Spondylitis and Physiotherapy

Ankylosing spondylitis is part of the arthritis group, with the number one characteristics being long term jointal and ligamental inflammatory response within our back bone (spine), causing pain and decreasing the movement and mobility within the joint. In severe cases, bones that are affected may join together (termed ankylosis fusion) causing a spine that is very stiff.

If that happens, the patient with the problem may develop a stiffness-related posture. Other joints that can be also affected but not so common includes the joints of the neck, hips, knees, shoulder and ankle; and may even affect the human organs.

At this point in time scientists and doctors are still not exactly sure the cause of this condition, but what they're sure of at this point in time is that 90% of the cases, patients has a DNA gene HLA-B27, which seems to suggest that the likelihood of ankylosing spondylitis is possibly more due to genetics. Note that even if 90% of people who has this disease has this particular HLA-B27 gene, but note that all people who has this gene has the disease.

Inflammation often begins at the lower back bone and at the sacrum-iliac joint. Often patients will complain of persistent and chronic pain and rigidity in the joints of the lower back and hip. Usually a patient will have the above symptoms especially after a bout of rest or non-movement.

Slowly, symptoms then move upwards along the spine, and may also affect the rib cage. If it affects the rib cage, what may happen is that the bones of the rib cage and sternum may join together - and if this happens, breathing will be difficult as the lungs will not be able to expand to take air in.

What physiotherapists does is to assess and diagnose if it is ankylosing spondylitis or not, and this is done via symptomatic assessments of this disease:

• Is there presence of pain and stiffness?
• If yes, where is the pain and stiffness located/which joints are favoured?
• Physical assessments which tests for presence of pain and range of motion of the said affected joints
• Poring over X Rays to look for postural anomalies
• Blood test results for the presence of the HLA-B27 gene
• Identifying if the disease had started to progress

The challenge with ankylosing spondylitis is that often early symptoms goes unnoticed and undiagnosed as the early symptoms resemble other conditions such as osteoarthritis of the back and knee or sprain back, which are rather common conditions.

Once the diagnosis has been made and confirmed, the focus of physiotherapy will be to provide as much pain relief as possible, decrease inflammation and inflammatory response, stretch out and prevent stiffness and increase range of motion, strength and stamina.

This is done through a matrix of

• joint and soft tissue mobilization and manipulation,
• soft tissue management,
• strengthening of weakened and unaffected muscle groups,
• prevention of deformity via postural correction (habitual and strength-wise)
• improve function and mobility

Regular physiotherapy and exercise therapy are crucial to the management of ankylosing spondylitis, as well as medication from your doctor.

Documentation In Physiotherapy - Benefits Of It

Documentation is very important in physiotherapy. A thing or a case is documented especially when that case has something that can help the present patient and even future patients for that matter. Different kinds of case studies are undertaken (e.g., types of support chairs that cater to back ailments, inventions that can aid a person recover from an ailment, a certain drug?s effects and side effects, etc.). Journals concerning therapy and medicine often include various accounts regarding physiotherapy. These documentations help physicians and other health care professionals by informing them about the latest methods, concepts, and works that have been successful and those that fell short.

More and more areas regarding physiotherapy cases are being covered in various studies. These cases are assessed then documented so that specialist as well as people in the community will learn about the findings of such cases. Documentations in physiotherapy are essential legal texts and should not be taken for granted especially by experts and professionals in health care.

In general, documentation papers and forms often contain introduction the physical issue or to physiotherapy, background of the study, past methods used to treat the case, attempted methods, procedure created and guidelines followed, discussion of the case, and other things that the author things are relevant to the case or study.

Most physiotherapy documentations are relevant to elderly patients. That is because many studies documented in physiotherapy concerns elderly patients. A good number of documentations confirm that physiotherapy is advantageous to aged patients, although some cases or studies appear to be unaltered between those having therapy and those who are not having any, or they remain to be inconclusive.

At present, there is a need to extend documentation in physiotherapy in the realm of children?s wellbeing, especially regarding various disorders and illnesses that struck children. Studies and documentations concerning speech and language disorders, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, development and so on.

Documentation in physiotherapy is a very broad term; however, some may not know that this term also embraces strategies focusing on hospital policies, information on guidelines and physical therapy. These policies and guidelines may be utilized in hospitals, clinics and other institutions.

What the Job of Physiotherapy Entails

Physiotherapy (also often referred to as Physical Therapy) is a hugely important role within the healthcare profession that addresses the treatment of physical ailments and conditions. Whether these physical ailments have been caused from an illness, an accident or even purely via the ravages of age, physiotherapy seeks to remedy and treat this in a number of ways.

Methods of treatment include the active promotion of:

· mobility

· functional ability

· quality of life

Furthermore, via continuous examination, evaluation and diagnosis, a physiotherapist will look to maximise a patient's movement potential and carry out various physical activities.

Who are typical patients in need of physiotherapy?

With physiotherapy being very much of the view that human movement is key in terms of one's well-being and health, there is a broad spectrum of hospital patients that fall into this per say:

· outpatients

· the terminally ill

· individuals suffering with mental illness

· orthopaedics

· women's health

· intensive care

· stroke patients

· paediatrics

Physiotherapists disguised as psychiatrists...

Physical rehabilitation for patients that require treatment from a physiotherapist can often be a lengthy process with granular results over long periods. Where patients can lose faith in their treatment and the remedial effects that it is actually having, it is the job of the physiotherapist to reassure a patient and coach them through the emotional highs as well as the lows. In conjunction with this, the physiotherapist will need to actively manage their patient's expectations so that the patient is as fully aware of the rate of their recovery and the timescale of realistic expectations.

Physical Intervention and Movement Therapy

Where physical treatment can vary drastically in terms of a patient's diagnosis, hospitals and physiotherapists ensure that there are extensive facilities and equipment available in order to efficiently treat their patients.

As such, many hospitals actually house special physiotherapy gyms. Unlike the normal type of gym that many people would expect to find, these gyms include various types of high-tech pieces of equipment that are designed to treat the multitude of a physiotherapy patient's needs.

There are also some hospitals that will contain hydrotherapy pools. Research has found that for particularly severe cases, hydrotherapy and movement therapy aided via the buoyancy provided whilst being submerged in water has proven hugely effective. So much so that even with the sizable cost of housing a pool within a hospital, the effective treatment and results that hydrotherapy has for patients outweighs the problematic expense.

Physiotherapy For Back Pain

Back pain - almost all of us are familiar with this term. In fact, we're familiar with not only this term but the pain as well. Back pain, or the pain of the back bone, is a condition almost all of us suffer from at some part in our life, especially at older ages, but no doubt nowadays the infirmity has been found in younger ones also. Normally due to negligence or sometimes considering this disease part of routine and petty patients often suffer from greater pain later.

Physiotherapy to help your Back Pain
How to get rid of this ruffian? The answer to this question is one word i.e. physiotherapy. Physiotherapy has been found effective against this disease. Actually what a physiotherapist does is the prescription of repetitive exercises of the affected area to relieve the patient from pain and gradually complete recovery is achieved.

In general physiotherapy accompanies medical treatment as well e.g. in the form of drugs or sometimes surgery. This juncture makes the patient's pace faster towards complete rehabilitation from back bone ache.

Back pain means pain in most of the cases quite severe to make the patient entirely a bed patient. So physiotherapist has primarily the aim to get the patient out from that pain. So physiotherapist searches for the reason of the pain which normally becomes clear after initial diagnosis but in case the cause of the pain doesn't become clarified then physiotherapist suggests some tests and reaches the reason of the pain as soon as possible.

Doctor prescribes the correct method to combat the back pain, which can vary case to case. Drugs, surgery, exercise, physiotherapy or whatever the doctor advices depends upon the specific implications of the case. Physiotherapy is prescribed frequently as it has been often found quite effective against back bone ache. Hence the case is referred to a physiotherapist.

Besides sole physiotherapy doctor prescribes drugs as well in fact to enable the patient to perform household chores. These can be painkillers or any other sort of medicines technically helpful to relieve the patient from the disease.

Back bone ache if not treated well can become a giant later. As said earlier the complications of the pain will be amplified with the passage of time hence a simple physiotherapeutically treatable disease may convert into a life threatening condition. If household tactics don't work then don't hesitate to consult your doctor rather rush toward him and get yourself out from this malady.

Physiotherapy not only relieves a person from back bone ache, it has been found effective against many other pains of the body.