Orthopaedic Physiotherapy

As a home visit physiotherapy service operating in Staffordshire and the West Midlands we see a large number of patients who have had orthopaedic procedures and are recovering from a variety of surgical procedures. Our home visit physiotherapy service is based in Lichfield and our mobile physios visit areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock, Rugeley and Burton

How Can ThreeSpires Physiotherapy Help After My Orthopaedic Operation?

After you have booked an initial assessment with one of our mobile physiotherapists, our physio will visit you at home meaning you don't need to go to a physiotherapy clinic which can be extremely difficult after an orthopaedic operation. Our community physiotherapists serve Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield, Rugeley, Walsall, Tamworth, Cannock and Burton Upon Trent and if you live in these areas one of our physios will be able to visit you at home. Due to the nature of orthopaedic operations and the need for re-assessment as our patients improve each treatment session is 1 hour. It is our experience as physiotherapists that having an hour session allows for a much greater response to physiotherapy and is especially beneficial for patients who have just had an operation and may be in pain, it is also really helpful for our older patients who may fatigue quickly and need longer recovery periods in sessions.

Each physiotherapy session is different and varies according to the needs of our patients and their orthopaedic procedure but below is a general overview of an initial physiotherapy assessment:

Subjective assessment (discussion with your physio) takes place initially and covers your condition, your orthopaedic procedure, your previous mobility and fitness levels and your goals for the future. Your physio will also look at your lifestyle and past medical history in order to gain a full picture and how best to proceed with physiotherapy.

Physical examination is the next part of the physiotherapy assessment process and looks at how you are physically recovering after your orthopaedic operation and includes range of motion, strength and mobility. This enables our physio to identify the best rehabilitation strategies and develop an effective treatment plan to assist you in returning to full fitness.

Treatment during the physiotherapy session may include, balance work, strengthening exercises, mobilising practice, joint mobilisation, gait re-education, and stretching. The appropriate combination of treatment options will be chosen by your physiotherapist and tailored to provide maximum improvement in terms of strength, range of motion, mobility, fitness and reduction in any pain.

Self management is a key part of recovering from an orthopaedic procedure and your physio will provide you with an individualised rehabilitation program that is tailored to meet your requirements and goals whatever they may be. Elements included in this program will be: a graded strengthening and exercise program, stretching techniques, balance exercises, postural advice, core strengthening exercises and strategies to re-adapt to normal daily life.

What Orthopaedic Operations Can We Help With Physiotherapy?.

This section tries to give more detail about some common orthopaedic procedures, how physiotherapy is an essential part of the recovery and rehabilitation process and the ways in which our home visit physiotherapy service can enable you to make the maximum possible recovery. There are a huge number of orthopaedic procedures out there and it is impossible to cover them all but I have tried to cover the most common opertaions that our physios help patients with recovering from at home:

Knee Replacements: 

Our mobile physios have a large amout of experience of helping patients at home with physiotherapy after a knee replacement. A knee replacement - involves replacing the whole joint with an artificial joint. This is a major operation and as such will require a large amount of rehabilitation and physiotherapy. Once you have returned home from hospital you will need physiotherapy to improve range of motion, increase strength, improve walking and reduce the amount of aid you need from crutches. This is the part where our home visit physios can help you get back to where you want to be with our home visit physiotherapy service. Our physiotherapists will be able to see you as often as needed and will be able to help you maximise your recovery by mobilising your knee joint, assisting with your walking, helping with strengthening and providing a comprehensive exercise and rehab plan.

Our home visit physiotherapy service is available in Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall, Burton and Cannock. So if you have had a knee replacement and need physiotherapy please get in touch.

 Hip Replacements:

Our community physiotherapy service is highly experienced at helping patients with their recovery after a hip replacement and our mobile physios will be only too happy to visit you at home after your hip replacement. A hip replacement is a major operation and once out of hospital physiotherapy at home will be an essential part of making a full recovery and getting back to where you want to be.

Physiotherapy and rehab will initially be aimed at improving mobility, function and strength and our physiotherapists can be there daily if required. You may receive NHS physiotherapy but due to resource constraints it is unlikely that you will receive enough input to make optimal progress - in this case our home visit physiotherapy service can supplement this provision and ensure you get the recovery you want. So if you or a relative have had a hip replacement and you would like to know more about how our home visit physiotherapy service can help then please don't hesitate to get in touch. We are based in Lichfield and serve surrounding areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock and Burton.

Shoulder Replacement:

This is a major procedure and will usually require a large amount of physiotherapy and rehabilitation. Here the whole shoulder joint is usually replaced including the head of humerus and glenoid fossa (ball and socket part of the joint). Recovery will be lengthy and require physiotherapy to assist with range of motion and strength. Our physiotherapists will be able to assist you with this process and help you reach your maximum potential by coming direct to your home, reducing the difficulty of getting to a physiotherapy clinic and ensuring that any rehab is suitable for your home environment. Our home visit physiotherapy service is based in Lichfield and offers physiotherapy to assist with recovery from a shoulder replacement in surrounding areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock.

 Ankle Replacement:

As with the shoulder replacement this is a major orthopaedic procedure and will require physiotherapy to maximise recovery. In this case the whole ankle joint is replaced with an artificial one. The recovery process is likely to be lengthy and physiotherapy to restore strength, muscular control and function will be an important part of rehab.

Another procedure sometimes used to reduce pain in the ankle is a joint fusion where the surgeon will pin and fuse the bones of the ankle joint together. Again for both of these procedures physiotherapy will be important and our home visit physiotherapy service, which is based in Lichfield and serves surrounding areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock, can assist greatly with rehab and making the process as easy as possible.

Shoulder Arthroscopies:

Often surgery on the shoulder will be done arthroscopically (keyhole), in this case there are a variety of common procedures that surgeons do often involving the tendons of the rotator cuff, the glenoid labrum or the bursa. An extremely common procedure is a sub-acromial decompression - this is usually a day case operation (you should just be in hospital for the day) and involves the surgeon shaving off some of the bone of the scapula and removing the sub-acromial bursa. Rotator cuff repairs and labral repairs are also done arthroscopically and should also only involve a short stay in hospital. Regardless of the surgery, physiotherapy to strengthen the tendons and muscles and restore range of motion is an essential part of recovery. 

Our physiotherapy service is based in Lichfield and serves surrounding areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock. If you have had a shoulder arthroscopy and need physiotherapy to help recovery please get in touch.

Knee Arthroscopies:

Many surgical procedures for the knee will be done arthroscopically - common procedures involve meniscal repairs, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repairs and debridements/clean ups of the knee joint. Most will be day operations (ie you don't stay overnight in hospital) but some such as the ACL repairs will involve a long period of rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

Why Have Orthopaedic Physiotherapy At Home?

Often our prospective patients will ask  "why have physio at home?". This is a good question and one to which we as physios would say there are a huge range of benefits of having physiotherapy at home after an orthopaedic operation rather than visiting a physiotherapy clinic. I have tried to list below the main benefits and reasons for having physiotherapy at home after an orthopaedic procedure:

1. It's hard to leave the home: in the early days after a major orthopaedic operation many of our patients find leaving the home is very difficult and at times can be impossible and even if they do manage to get to a physiotherapy clinic they are exhausted and in pain by the time the see the physio. Having one of our mobile physiotherapists visit them at home takes away this difficulty and means that they can concentrate solely on their exercises and recovery. For some orthopaedic procedures such as a knee replacement the early days of recovery are especially difficult and in this period having one of our physios visit at home is hugely helpful in terms of accessing physiotherapy at this key time in their recovery. 

2. Pain: a common side effect of most orthopaedic operations is pain and often as physios we see patients at home that find that their pain to be extremely debilitating and makes them unable to leave the home. For these patients visiting a physiotherapy clinic is exhausting and by the time they get home after seeing the physio at the clinic they feel that in fact they are worse because of the pain. For these patients having one of our physiotherapists visit them at home is of enormous benefit and reduces the problem of pain.

3. Time saving: for some of our physiotherapy patients the time that they save by not having to visit a physiotherapy clinic and having one of our mobile physios visit them at home is a major benefit. 

4. Assessment at home: now this may seem an obvious benefit but as physiotherapists that visit our patients at home we can state with experience that having the opportunity to see our patients at home is of major clinical benefit. As physios it is invaluable to be able to see the home environment that our patients live in and where they will do the majority of their rehab (especially in the early days). This allows us to tailor exercises and their rehab program to their life and also allows us as physios to see what restrictions and limitations they may have.

To maximise your recovery from these knee operations, physiotherapy to aid strength, restore range of motion and function will be a key component of the rehab process. Our physiotherapists can form a key component of your rehab by coming direct to you at home and making sure that your rehab program fits your lifestyle and your home environment. We are based in Lichfield and serve surrounding areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock.

Hopefully the above information has helped you understand the importance of physiotherapy after any orthopaedic procedure or operation and has highlighted how our home visit physiotherapy service can improve and ease the rehabilitation process by making recovery and rehab possible at home rather than having to visit a physiotherapy clinic. Clearly there are many more surgical procedures than simply those listed above for example spinal fusion and discectomies after which patients will also need physiotherapy but those listed above form the majority of orthopaedic operations and should hopefully be of some assistance.

If you have had or are going to have an operation and would like to know if physiotherapy can help then please get in touch: we are a home visit physiotherapy service based in Lichfield and serving anywhere within a 20 minute drive including areas such as Burntwood, Cannock, Tamworth, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Rugeley and Burton. We can be contacted by phone: 0788 428 1623, email: enquiries@threespiresphysiotherapy.co.uk or by using the contact form. Updated 15/03/2024