Physiotherapy for pain and injury in London
Welcome to the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Research Update for October, a summary of the latest studies. If you are suffering with CRPS, I am here to show you how you can move forward — come and visit the CRPS clinic page here. Spinal cord stimulation for complex regional pain syndrome type 1 with dystonia: a […]
The story told by the patient with CRPS provides insight into their suffering, characterised and brought to life by their chosen language, body posturing, body language, and changing facial expressions. The priming for a condition frequently arises months or years before from an illness, a stressful event, a previous injury or painful event. The way in […]
Some will argue that manual therapy — joint and/or soft tissue techniques — has no role in chronic pain. I disagree. Why? (In no particular order) 1. Touch is normal and it is something that we do when we care. 2. Hands on treatment is expected when you visit a physiotherapist or physical therapist. 3. […]
Many people with persisting and chronic pain elect to have an intervention for pain relief. This can include steroid injections, facet joint injections, nerve root blocks, epidurals, denervations and sympathetic blocks to name but a few. These procedures are usually administered by a pain consultant (a doctor who specialises in pain management), an orthopaedic surgeon, […]
A phrase I often use with patients is ‘nothing happens in isolation’. This concept is about priming and how the neuroimmune system is set at the time of an intervention as this will affect the outcome. The question to ask is ‘how is this system likely to respond to the treatment I am about to […]
The rehabilitation journey following an injury must be traveled with full commitment and completed. Usually when we talk about rehabilitation, it is the exercises that are focused upon: the movement, the task, the goal and how much to do. Nothing wrong with this of course as the training parameters are important to understand the effects […]
I see a number of cases of cervical dystonia (spasmodic torticollis) that features awkward posturing and movement of the head and neck. This can be painful and have consequences for normal activities. We rely upon being able to orientate ourselves to our environment by controlling our head and gaze direction and then responding appropriately. Primary dystonia has no […]
Sustaining an injury is commonplace in sport. What happens in the first few minutes, hours and days can play a big part in how well we recover. The injury needs to be diagnosed and understood, for example an ankle twisting beyond the normal range of movement that results in a sprained ligament. As important is […]
Understanding pain mechanisms is the key to effective treatment. The mechanisms that have been studied, written about in science journals and discussed with patients include nociceptive pain, inflammatory pain, neuropathic pain and central sensitisation. Elucidating which are playing a role in the patient’s experience allows the doctor to prescribe the right medication and the modern […]
As a physiotherapist I frequently use my hands to treat the joints and tissues. It comes with the territory, everyone expects hands-on therapy and it does helps to reduce tension and pain. Most likely, the pain relief from joint mobilisation is due to descending mechanisms that include those that are powered by serotonin and noradrenaline […]