October is National Physical Therapy Month, an annual campaign that’s intended to increase public awareness about physical therapy and highlight the multitude of ways that patients’ lives can improve from treatment. To do our part in spreading the word and working towards these goals, we’re providing a detailed review of the wide range of conditions that physical therapists can treat in each region of the body.
In this post, we’re focusing on the shoulder, elbow, and wrist with brief summaries of the most prevalent injuries and conditions that occur in these regions.
The shoulder is the third most common site for musculoskeletal pain in the body, with up to 67% of the population bound to experience it at some point. The primary reason pain occurs so frequently in this region is that the shoulder is the most flexible and mobile of all the joints, as it can rotate a full 360°. This extreme flexibility, however, makes the shoulder more vulnerable to a variety of sudden and overuse injuries. Among the most common shoulder–related conditions are the following:
The elbow is the link between the upper and lower arm, and it can be subjected to repeated stress from many daily activities. As a result, most elbow–related injuries that physical therapists treat result from repetitive stress, either from one’s occupation or from certain sports. Below are a few of the most common:
The wrist is comprised of 15 bones, which are connected by three primary joints and several other smaller joints, plus numerous muscles, ligaments, and tendons that reinforce these connections. Any of the structures of the wrist can be damaged by extreme movements—like twisting, bending, or a direct impact—that force it beyond its normal range of motion, or from repetitive use. Below is a selection of the most common wrist–related injuries physical therapists manage:
Physical therapists can effectively treat these and many other painful conditions that affect the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Most treatment programs will involve some combination of education, pain–relieving interventions, flexibility and strengthening exercises, manual (hands–on) techniques, and activity modification recommendations—particularly for repetitive strain injuries—but the specific contents of each plan will vary depending on the type and severity of the condition, and the patient’s abilities and goals.
There is an abundance of research that supports physical therapy as effective solution for many of these conditions. For example, a recent review of studies called a systematic review found that stretching exercises, strengthening exercises, and other physical therapy techniques reduced pain and improved range of motion in patients with frozen shoulder, while a 2018 systematic review identified moderately strong evidence to support exercise therapy for rotator cuff tears. Research has also shown that exercise therapy is effective for both tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow, and that manual therapy can lead to significant benefits in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.
In our next post, we’ll review conditions affecting the knee, ankle, and foot.
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