The Importance of Physical Therapy Before Surgery & Physical Therapy After Surgery
The Role of Physical Therapy Before and After Surgery
People often think of physical therapy as a treatment reserved for after surgery. This simply isn’t true. Physical therapy can play a critical role in preparing for surgery, too. Furthermore, it offers patients a chance to optimize their preparedness, enhance recovery, and potentially even avoid expensive and inconvenient surgery altogether.
“We have people come to us asking whether they should have surgery,” says PT Dr. Mona Tsutsui. “They want to know about their options ─ get surgery, do physical therapy beforehand, or both.”
In this article, we explore the significance of physical therapy before and after surgery, highlighting the benefits it can provide.
Physical Therapy As a Conservative Option
Before you sign up for surgery, you should always consider physical therapy as the first option. Of course, you must be first assessed to ensure that no actual medical conditions exist, of which a physical therapist must be aware. That’s the first thing we do in a full-body evaluation.
“Once we have made this assessment, physical therapy could be a conservative option to get you back to the activities you want to return to,” explains Mona. “There are many times in which people come in thinking they have to get surgery. After working with us, some have ended up canceling their surgery because of the progress they made.”
Experience tells us that not everything we see in imaging has to be operated on. What you see in an image is not always the cause of your pain. Our assessment process allows us to determine if there is a better, less invasive way of treating your pain or injury. If we can get some strength and mobility back into your system, isn’t that a better option than going under the knife to cut open and fix things that are in there and maybe don’t need fixing?
Why People Should Do Physical Therapy Before Surgery
Of course, there are instances where surgery is required. Even then, it can be highly beneficial to undergo a course of pre-surgery physical therapy.
“Let’s consider a person who tears their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in their knee due to a specific incident. They are also a dancer and experienced a popping sensation and swelling in the knee upon landing. There is a clear mechanism of injury that led to the tear,” explains Mona.
“They could try undergoing physical therapy without surgery because some studies suggest that individuals can function without an ACL, and the ligaments can heal on their own without surgical intervention.
“However, in their specific situation, where they need to engage in activities involving cutting, running, and changing directions, which are different from everyday tasks, surgery becomes a more viable option.”
The age of the client should also be considered. For someone who is young and with specific activity requirements, surgery could allow them to function in various angles and directions.
If surgery is scheduled for a few months in the future, it’s often advantageous for you to undergo physical therapy beforehand. In the case of our dancer, this would involve strengthening the muscles around the knee, focusing on the calf, quadriceps, and hamstrings, as well as improving their range of motion. As Mona says:
“By building strength prior to surgery, you enter the surgical process in a stronger state than before the injury occurred. Your recovery in post-surgery rehabilitation would likely be more efficient, as you would already have a baseline improvement in strength.”
In a nutshell, undergoing physical therapy before surgery helps to prepare you for the procedure and facilitates a speedier post-surgery recovery.
The Importance of Physical Therapy After Surgery
Much as we would like it to, surgery does not guarantee that you will return to pre-injury levels of activity. Neither does it guarantee complete freedom from pain. We’ve seen many people who had thought that surgical repair alone would return them to their former selves.
“It definitely depends on how much work is being done before and after the surgery,” says Mona, “but there’s a misconception that once you fix the broken parts, you would get back to doing what you were doing 100%. That’s not always the case. The extent of work done before and after the surgery greatly influences the recovery process.”
Some people who come to us after surgery may have done some physical therapy in preparation for it. After surgery, they find that they haven’t fully regained their previous capabilities. That can be challenging for them, especially if they were under the impression that they would regain a full range of pain-free motion.
“There are expectations that need to be set,” says Mona. “We need to educate the client that if they haven’t done a lot of strength work to prepare for the surgery, they might still need to do a lot of work after the surgery to gain the strength back and to build more of it.”
The Bottom Line
Before deciding to have surgery, you should consider physical therapy as your first option – especially if there is no trauma involved in your pain. There are two reasons for this:
First, many people have found that proper strength training and therapy help them to avoid surgery.
Second, physical therapy allows us to educate the clients on the options for their situation.
Imaging results are not always indicative of the actual cause of pain, and physical therapy can help determine if conservative measures can resolve the issue. By engaging in targeted exercises and therapeutic techniques, patients may experience a significant reduction in pain and an improvement in their functional abilities. In some cases, individuals have even canceled their scheduled surgeries due to the positive outcomes achieved through physical therapy.
If you do need surgery, physical therapy beforehand can help prepare your body for surgery and recovery after. Then, post-operation, physical therapy can aid your recovery, enhancing your strength, mobility, and overall well-being as you progress to your desired level of functionality.
Our job here at Reload is to provide our clients with the best advice for their specific situations, always keeping in mind their best interests. We provide you with all the options you have so you can make informed and assertive decisions, and no matter which way you choose, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way.
Book an appointment with us to start with a comprehensive 90-minute body evaluation!
