Some surgical procedures, especially ACL reconstructions, have found that outcomes after surgery are optimized when patients undergo physical therapy prior to surgery, or “prehab”. By delaying the surgery date by a few weeks and working with a physical therapist to regain normal strength and range of motion in the affected body part, this allows the patient to go into surgery at a significantly stronger baseline. This will help aid with recovery of strength after surgery and can ultimately help the patient reach their goals.
Another reason some patients may have preoperative physical therapy is to meet their physical therapist prior to surgery and to get baseline measurements. Often this is done for the following surgical procedures:
A pre-operative visit can be helpful to get any questions answered, meet the therapist you will be working with post-operatively, and to learn some home exercises to start immediately after surgery. During this visit, your therapist will take baseline measurements, review any expected surgical precautions, demonstrate the use of any assistive device, brace, or sling that may be appropriate following surgery, and review any questions.
If you have an upcoming surgery and want to see about scheduling either prehab or a single pre-operative visit, call us today at 240-482-2438. We offer pre and post-operative visits at all of our Aligned Orthopedic & Sports Therapy locations.
