Manual Therapy Services

Manual therapy or you can say physical therapy is a field of healthcare related to the assessment and treatment of individual movement dysfunctions. Using this therapy, doctors can develop, restore and maintain movement and function of an individual Joint. Dysfunctions can be caused due to aging, injury or disease, resulting in pain, discomfort or disability.

Various physical techniques are being used by the Manual therapists for the treatment including heat, cold, water, manual techniques, electrical technique and therapeutic exercise techniques. Manual therapy is applicable in a number of areas and conditions but the most common and considerable area includes orthopaedic and neurological pain management.

Manual therapy techniques are mainly used in the treatment of neck and back pain. The Spinalogy approach uses Manual therapy techniques to relieve patients’ pain and discomfort followed by the active techniques to improve the overall spine fitness by improving the strength level and flexibility of the spine.

Some of the Manual therapy services provided by the Spinalogy clinic are:

Manual therapy

Manual therapy uses passive mobilization and manipulation techniques applied to the targeted synovial joints and other tissues. Manipulation (adjustment) techniques are applied to the joints to cause their adjustments/realignments. They are usually associated with an audible click at the joint. On the other hand, Mobilizations are graded movements with each grade associated with a part of the range of motion of the particular joint. Mobilization can be further classified on the basis of their target tissue:

• Joint mobilizations: These techniques are applied to joints and are used to relieve pain and improve movement by alleviating stiffness. There are different schools of joint mobilization available, each having their own specific guidelines such as:
  1. The Kaltenbohn's joint mobilization techniques.
  2. The Maitland technique of joint mobilizations and manipulations
  3. Mulligan’s technique of mobilizations with movement
  4. Mckenzie’s joint mobilizations techniques
• Soft tissue mobilizations: Using this technique, soft tissues like muscles, tendons and ligaments improve their functions and get relieved from associated pain and discomfort. Under soft tissue mobilization comes various techniques that can be applied on the tissues to get rid of the pain. Some of these techniques are:
  1. Muscle energy techniques
  2. Cyriax’s mobilizations
  3. Myofascial release techniques
• Neural tissue mobilizations: As the name suggests, these are applied for neural tissue tightness and pain emerging from it. They use the movement of the nerve within its sheath along its course in the limbs. The technique includes:
  1.Butler’s neural tissue mobilization
  2.Shacklock’s nerve mobilizations.

Physiotherapy and electrotherapy service

These techniques use various physical factors and electrotherapeutic devicesto improve function and reduce pain. With these therapies patients are prepared for the active therapies and exercise. Though the passive therapiesare short lived but it provides excellent pain reliefand without using the active therapy this course of treatment is incomplete.The various techniques and applications used are as follows:

• Heat applications
  1. Short wave diathermy: It provides deep heat to internal tissues with the help through use of high frequency electromagnetic field.
  2. Hydrocollator packs: It gives provides superficial heat to tissues.
  3. Steam packs: It provides provides moist superficial heat to tissues.
• Cold applications:
  Ice packs are used in this application to reduce the pain of the tissues.
• Electrical agents:
  1.Interferential therapy: This therapy uses medium frequency currents to produce an interference pattern, deep inside tissues. Basically, this therapy is used for pain relief and deep stimulation.
  2.Transcutaneous electrical stimulations: In this technique, low frequency current used in different patterns to provide pain relief and superficial stimulation.
  3.Electrical muscle stimulations: It provide various current patterns for muscle stimulation and pain relief. Modified galvanic, iontophoresis and surged faradic are the different patterns of current applications that are used with this.
  4.Ultrasound therapy: uses sound waves and vibrations created by them to produce a soothing deep pain relief and micromassage effect.

Therapeutic exercises

Exercises are considered to be the backbone of the active therapies given to the patient. They help in treating the cause of the pain or discomfort. You may not get the instant result of the exercises, so patience and dedication are required to realize their effects fully. Therapeutic exercises can be further classified based on the function they are aiming at:

• Strengthening exercises: These exercises are best for improving the strength of target muscles. They may involve either free exercises or exercises with resistance that can be applied either externally or by utilizing body resistance. Strengthening exercises also help in restoring the muscle function in terms of better movement and stability of the joint. Also they help inpreventing further injury to the joint.
• Stretching exercises: These exercises help in restoring muscle length. Muscle's length is considered to be as important as strength for its function. More often, shortened and tight muscles are considered to be the cause of movement restrictions and pain. In such positions, the muscle loses its strength and hence stretching exercises are required to strengthen the muscles.
• Flexibility exercises: : Basically, a joint's motionentirely depends on the flexibility of its surrounding tissues. Flexibility exercises are the range of some motion exercises that are aimed at restoring and maintaining joint range of motion.
• Postural correction techniques: Postural correction techniques help in regaining the normal posture of body. These are a set of instructions with certain cues attached to them and need to be practised several times a day.
• Core strengthening and stabilisation exercises: These are specifically implemented for improving the core muscle strength and addressing the spine stability. Through several feedback on muscles, these exercisesare carried out that involve several steps and progressions. The aim of these exercises is to add the core techniques into all the daily livingactivities, so as to help in maintaining and restoring spinal health.
• These techniques involve specific exercise sets that have been introduced for certain functions.
• Pilates exercise
• William's flexion exercises
• Mckenzie's positions and extension exercises
• Home visits: The Spinalogy clinic provides for home visits for physiotherapy treatments for patient who cannot attend clinic sessions. For further details regarding this contact us at: +91 20 2588 2244 / +91 9922 134 134 for Aundh Clinic or +91 9552 134 134 for Koregaon Park clinic or +91 9533 557 557 for Hyderabad clinic.

Taping

Also considered as a “Strapping Process”, Taping is a procedure that requires tapes that are attached to the skin, so as to physically keep muscles or bones in place at a certain position. This helps in quick recovery and reduces pain. Taping process is usually used to help the patient in getting recovered from overuse and other injuries.

One of the important roles of taping includes limiting the abnormal and excessive movement by supporting the ligaments and capsules of all the unstable joints through strapping. Also it enhances the proprioceptive result from the joint and limb. Tapping is such a strong process of curing injuries that it can even support injuries occurred at the muscle-tendon units by compressing and restricting movements, using protective pads, splints and dressings.