Arm surgery Prehab Services at Evolve!

Are You Prepared for Arm Surgery?

Having any kind of surgery can feel daunting but taking steps to prepare your body and mind for the procedure can make it feel less overwhelming. You have likely spoken with your surgeon about what to expect after surgery, but you may be wondering what else you could do to prepare. Prehabilitation is a type of physical therapy aimed at preparing a patient for surgery or preventing injury. For those undergoing a planned arm surgery, prehabilitation can be an excellent way to get ready for the procedure and receive extra support along the way.

WHICH ARM SURGERIES QUALIFY FOR PREHABILITATION?

In theory, any surgery that is planned ahead of time could qualify for prehabilitation. Some surgeons recommend or request that their patients participate in prehabilitation. In other cases, a patient may have to advocate for it themselves. Emergency surgeries do not qualify for prehabilitation as there would be no time to do it and there may be no added benefit to prehabilitation for minor procedures. That being said, many arm surgeries could benefit from a course of prehabilitation. Below are some examples:

Rotator cuff repair
Shoulder labral repair
Shoulder replacement
Impingement surgery
Acromioclavicular joint repair
Bicep tendon repair
Ulnar nerve decompression
Elbow replacement
Elbow ligament repair
Carpal tunnel release
Wrist/hand tendon repair

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR GOALS

If you decide to pursue prehabilitation for an arm surgery, your physical therapist will perform a subjective interview to better understand your situation. This allows them to create an individualized prehabilitation program just for you. Here are some questions your PT may ask you during this process:

“What symptoms are you experiencing in your arm and what makes them better or worse?”

“How long have you been dealing with these symptoms?”

“What surgery are you planning to undergo?”

“What do you know about the recovery process for this procedure?”

“What support do you have in place at home to help you recover?”

“What types of activities do you hope to resume after recovering from surgery?”

THE PREMISE OF PREHABILITATION

Most people are familiar with the benefits of participating in rehabilitation to recover from an injury or surgery but may never have considered the reasons to work with a physical therapist beforehand. Let’s break down some of the benefits and goals of prehabilitation ahead of an arm surgery.

First and foremost, knowledge is power. Stress around surgery and surgery recovery can be exacerbated by the uncertainties of what it will be like and how you will cope. Your surgeon should be able to provide you with information on how long you may need to wear a sling or a cast and when you will be able to use your arm normally, but this may not satisfy all of your questions. One benefit of participating in prehabilitation is that you can meet and get to know the physical therapist who will rehab your surgery. You can get comfortable with them moving your arm around and build trust that they will care for you well. Your therapist can also answer a lot of your questions about what the rehabilitation stages and timeline will look like, how you can manage pain, and what activity limitations you can expect. More importantly, perhaps, they can help you gather adaptive equipment and recruit help from others to make your recovery easier.

Next, prehabilitation can help prepare your body for surgery. Surgery, while ultimately healing, is also a trauma to the body as the skin, muscles and other tissues are cut, moved or stretched. For example, when a shoulder is replaced the muscles, fascia and skin around the shoulder are also disrupted and have to heal as well. Also, since planned surgeries don’t typically happen on normal, healthy tissues, there has likely been some pain, weakness, stiffness, inflammation or other symptoms that have been interfering with your activity level and movement for some time. In all likelihood, your arm is not moving or functioning optimally before the surgery and many of these symptoms will be exacerbated, at least temporarily by the surgery itself.

Prehabilitation provides you with the opportunity to address as many of these impairments before surgery as possible. Maximizing the strength, movement and function of the arm before surgery can only make recovering from it easier. An arm that is weak before surgery may only get weaker afterward (until you can begin strengthening) but a strong arm may not lose as much strength and therefore be easier to recover on the other side. Additionally, pain management can be a great benefit of prehabilitation as waiting for surgery while experiencing pain can be quite difficult.

Now you may be wondering how a physical therapist will work around the symptoms that are prompting your surgery in the first place and you are right to do so. Prehabilitation is not expected to prevent the need for surgery although that is always a nice surprise. Instead, your physical therapist will use their expertise in movement, the human body and rehabilitation to create a treatment plan that respects your pain or injuries while addressing as many symptoms and impairments as possible.

SETTING UP YOUR PREHABILITATION

If you are interested in setting up prehabilitation, talk to your surgeon. If there is time for a 2-8 week course of therapy the next step will be setting up your initial evaluation. Our team of therapists at Evolve Physical Therapy loves to help patients prepare for arm surgery. We know that the prospect of undergoing surgery can be scary and we are here to instill confidence and help you prepare. If you are interested in participating in prehabilitation ahead of arm surgery, call Evolve Physical Therapy today to schedule your first visit.

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About EvolveNY-

Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics-

There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better!

First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.

Multiple Brooklyn Physical Therapy Locations!

1-718-306-6846

https://EvolveNY.com

Prehab for Arm surgery