Physiotherapy for osteochondrosis, depending on the patient's condition, is used both in combination with drug therapy and independently. For osteochondrosis, the following types of physiotherapy are used: Laser therapy, Detenzor - therapy, Electrotherapy, Shockwave therapy, Magnetotherapy, Mud and Balneotherapy, Ultrasound therapy, Ultraviolet irradiation (UFO). After successfully relieving the exacerbation, massage and physiotherapy exercises are shown.
UFO:under the influence of UVA, vitamin D is formed in the skin, which helps to absorb calcium. The method is carried out using irradiators that have bactericidal, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects.
Ultrasound therapy and phonophoresis:during ultrasound therapy, the body is exposed to high-frequency sounds (from 20 kHz and more). Due to its effect, the method relieves pains of various localization. This method is combined with the introduction of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs (ultraphonophoresis) for their better penetration into the affected tissues.
Shockwave therapy:the method consists in transmitting an acoustic wave to a painful area of the body. This type: eliminates pain, improves microcirculation, improves metabolism.
Detensor therapy:the method consists in stretching the spine using the patient's body weight.
Laser therapy:the method has a healing effect using helium-neon lasers. Due to the activation of bioelectric processes in the tissues of the nervous system, laser therapy has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Laser radiation is carried out along the inflamed spinal roots. With osteochondrosis, an effect on the paravertebral zones of the affected spine is used.
Electrotherapy:Electrotherapy has a multifaceted effect on the body: it eliminates pain and discomfort, improves nutrition and trophism of the affected tissues. Impulse currents have a very effective therapeutic effect. Their mechanism of action on the body is determined by the effect on nerve receptors. Low-frequency impulses contribute to the extinction of acute pain and are prescribed as first aid for severe pain syndrome. The following types of currents are used: diadynamic therapy (DDT), amplipulse therapy (SMT), interference therapy, transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS), UHF electric field.
Magnetotherapy:Physiotherapy for osteochondrosis includes the use of magnetotherapy, which has a decongestant, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic effect. The inductors are placed on the affected spine and limbs.
Balneotherapy and Mud therapy:balneotherapy for osteochondrosis consists in the use of mineral waters (local and general baths, pools, showers) for the purpose of treatment and rehabilitation. During the procedure, minerals penetrate the skin and act on receptors and nerve centers.
When treating with mud, the effect on the body occurs under the influence of temperature and the chemical composition of the healing mud. Mud is used in the form of applications.
Balneotherapy stimulates metabolism, improves blood circulation and relieves inflammation and pain.
Combined methods of physiotherapy: Combined methods of physiotherapy for osteochondrosis are most often prescribed. For example, with severe pain, diadynamic therapy and electrophoresis (diadynamophoresis) with the use of novocaine are used. For a one-step effect on biological active points, the method of acupuncture-laser puncture is used. Its action is to activate points with acupuncture needles and laser radiation.
Mud therapy is often used with electrotherapy (electrophoresis with mud solution, inductothermy with mud, galvanic mud therapy).
Joint treatment
All joint diseases can be divided into two main groups - joint lesions, which arise from metabolic disorders, and joint inflammation. Of course, in each case, joint treatment is carried out according to its own special program.
Joint treatment,whether it be arthritis, arthrosis, rheumatism or other ailment, it must necessarily be complex, and the main task to be solved by the treatment is to eliminate the cause of the disease, and, consequently, the painful symptoms.
Treatment with modern techniques is aimed at eliminating or minimizing pain, signs of local or general inflammation, and restoring the affected joints. Complex treatment usually begins with drug therapy.
The patient is prescribed pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs, drugs that help restore articular cartilage, strengthen the immune system. Treatment of joints at this stage allows you to relieve pain symptoms. Often it includes intra-articular administration of drugs so that the therapeutic substance in the desired concentration gets directly into the cavity of the diseased joint. This increases the effectiveness of drug treatment.
Further, when the main symptoms of the acute stage are safely eliminated, treatment continues with the help of a complex of physiotherapeutic procedures, exercise therapy exercises, massage. In particular, the treatment of joints with physiotherapeutic methods has found very wide application today.
Pulse currents (DDT, SMT), magnetotherapy, EHF-therapy, laser therapy, electrophoresis with medicinal substances, ultrasound and phonophoresis are used. When the exacerbation subsides, balneotherapy (various types of baths) and mud therapy are connected. Physiotherapy and massage are prescribed.
Back pain treatment
There are many reasons for these pains. First of all, excruciating pain can appear due to a hernia (protrusion) of the intervertebral disc, osteochondrosis, and pathology of the nervous system. Most often, back pain occurs in those people who have been in the same position for a long time.
And yet the most common reason is lack of physical activity! This reduces blood flow to the ligaments, joints, and intervertebral discs, causing the cartilage that forms them to begin to break down. It is the weakening of the ligamentous apparatus that is the cause of all diseases of the spine. When pain appears, you should immediately consult a doctor who will determine its cause, make the correct diagnosis and prescribe treatment.
In order to reduce the risk of back pain, you need to move more, monitor your weight and do at least minimal gymnastics (15 minutes a day is enough).
Proper nutrition is also very important - it is one of the keys to good health and longevity, and the spine needs protein to maintain flexibility and calcium for strength. Calcium is found in large quantities in hard cheese, liver, nuts, cottage cheese, eggs, and protein in meat and dairy products. The bones and ligaments of the spine also need microelements: phosphorus (there is a lot of it in bran, peas, fish), magnesium and manganese (they are found in sea fish, onions, potatoes), as well as fatty acids - their source is walnuts, fatty seafish and olive oil.
When back pain worsens, treatment begins with medications - usually pain relievers, diuretics, and medications that relieve muscle spasms. However, there are no drugs without side effects, they are used only for a limited time, and most importantly, they do not eliminate the cause of back pain and do not prevent a relapse of the disease. In the acute period, treatment methods such as traction, as well as the wearing of collars and corsets, are also used, which helps to relieve the diseased spine.
In addition to emergency medicine - drugs that relieve muscle spasms and pain, the most important treatment for osteochondrosis is physiotherapy, which helps to reduce pain in the acute period of the disease, improve blood circulation in tissues, prevent nutritional disorders of ligaments, muscles and joints, and prevent movement disorders.
Modern physiotherapy is a branch of medicine that has a powerful arsenal of treatment tools; two large blocks are distinguished in it - physiotherapy exercises with massage and electrotherapy. Therapeutic massage is one of the most effective methods of treating osteochondrosis and back pain, as it improves blood circulation in deep tissues and removes muscle blocks ("clamps"), which are the main cause of severe pain.
One of the most effective methods of electrotherapy is drug electrophoresis - it is a means of targeted delivery of drugs to a diseased organ, which improves blood supply to tissues.
Impulse currents - DDT, SMT - have a pronounced analgesic, antispasmodic and trophic effect. Also, a laser, a magnetic laser is used to treat back pain. This method allows you to quickly relieve the swelling associated with inflammation, and, accordingly, the pain that occurs in the edematous and compressed tissues.
Magnetotherapy is used in the form of permanent or alternating magnetic fields, it is also able to quickly stop swelling and pain.
D'arsonval currents are effective - these are "ozonized" currents used to relieve painful muscle spasms, high-frequency ultrasonic vibrations that eliminate inflammation and help scars to dissolve, increasing tissue elasticity.
Physiotherapy plays a special role in physiotherapy. Its importance is often underestimated, and after all, without a full-fledged muscle corset, it is impossible to cure back pain and prevent recurrence of osteochondrosis.
Physiotherapy is of particular importance in trauma and in the postoperative period. Its use will help prevent the recurrence of back pain that occurs due to the so-called "motor stereotypes". For example, an office worker who spends his entire working day sitting at a computer, or a salesperson whose main workload falls on his feet. The usual health-improving gymnastics, yoga, Pilates and other types of exercises can also become a very effective way to combat "motor automatisms".
Neck pain treatment
Pain can be caused by various reasons, ranging from muscle spasm to herniated discs in the cervical spine. If a pain in the neck appears once (due to a sharp turn of the head, an uncomfortable posture during sleep), then, most likely, it will go away by itself in a few days.
To reduce pain, you only need to reduce the static load on the neck muscles (do not keep your head tilted for a long period of time), do not get carried away with excessive physical exertion, do not make sudden neck movements.
If the pain in the neck is constant or often recurring, accompanied by headache, numbness of the upper limbs, it is necessary to undergo a full examination.
Physiotherapy of neck pain is aimed at relieving pain, improving blood circulation and microcirculation in the affected segment, providing anti-inflammatory and anti-edema effects, eliminating metabolic and dystrophic disorders, and reducing movement disorders.
Physical factors are used at the stages of inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment, after the patient is discharged from the hospital, as well as in early postoperative rehabilitation. In the acute period: after 4-5 days (as the severity of the process subsides), laser therapy, pulse currents (SMT, DDT, interference currents), magnetotherapy, UFO of the segmental zone, darsonvalization of the cervical collar zone of the spine and the occipital region of the head, electrophoresis of substances are prescribedlocal anesthetic, ganglion-blocking action on pain zones.
In the subacute period: phonophoresis with drugs, magnetotherapy, electrophoresis of drugs, microwave electromagnetic fields (SMV, UHF), laser therapy are used.
In the stage of remission: thermotherapy is connected, including ozokerite and mud therapy for the cervical-collar zone, balneotherapy (iodine-bromine, turpentine baths, laurel baths, bischofite baths), underwater shower-massage, therapeutic massage.
Low back pain treatment
The feeling of pain in the lower back appears due to an imbalance of the musculo-ligamentous apparatus. In this case, microtraumatization of soft tissues occurs, as a result of which chemical irritants (pain mediators) are released in excess. They cause muscle spasm and back pain.
The origin of lumbodynia is mainly associated with osteochondrosis, which is localized in the lumbar region. Lumbodynia is characterized by aching pain in the lower back with moderate or traumatic factors of lumbodynia: physical fatigue, systematic or excessive physical effort; sharp movements; constant work in a "non-physiological" or prolonged stay in an uncomfortable position; bruise of the lower back, hypothermia, colds, etc.
The back pain treatment program includes the following main points:
- Bed rest for eight to ten days. In this case, the bed should be flat and firm. "Rest" on such a surface allows the back muscles to relax.
- Medical treatment of lumbago involves the use of sedatives and pain relievers and the use of novocaine blockades (with severe increasing pain).
From the methods of physiotherapy, you can use the electrophoresis of analgesics, impulse currents, ultraviolet irradiation of segmental zones. In the acute period, the patient may be prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the form of tablets, injections, suppositories or ointments that relieve muscle spasm. Warming creams can be used only during the rehabilitation period (on the third day of exacerbation). In the acute period, they can provoke swelling and increase pain.
- After the elimination of acute pain, lumbago treatment is continued with the help of exercise therapy, massage and manual therapy.
The main task at this stage is to strengthen the muscle corset and reduce the compression of the nerve roots. Special exercises for lumbago help normalize metabolism, improve blood circulation and nutrition of the intervertebral discs, relieve muscle tension, increase the intervertebral space and relieve the spine.
Additionally, at the stage of remission, acupuncture, hydromassage, mineral baths, mud therapy and other physiotherapy procedures are prescribed (see Treatment of back pain). Thanks to this, blood circulation is improved, an anti-inflammatory and resorbing effect is provided.
Physiotherapy treatment
Physiotherapy (from the Greek physis - nature and therapy), a branch of medicine that studies the healing properties of physical factors and develops methods of their use for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. In modern physiotherapy, magnetic, electric and electromagnetic fields of low, high, ultrahigh and ultrahigh frequencies, artificial light radiation (from infrared to ultraviolet and monochromatic coherent), mechanical vibrations (from infrasonic to ultrasonic), etc. are used.
Physical factors have affected humans throughout its evolution, therefore physiotherapy procedures have a greater physiological effect on the body than many drugs.
Physiotherapy treatment can be used both independently and in combination with drug therapy, manual therapy, massage, physiotherapy exercises. The variety of factors and techniques used in physiotherapy determines the possibilities of individual impact on the body and targeted influence on the pathological process without negative side effects.
The use of physiotherapy is possible in almost all areas of medicine: otolaryngology, gastroenterology, gynecology, urology, pulmonology, orthopedics and traumatology, neurology, surgery, cardiology and others.
There is a fairly wide range of physiotherapeutic treatment, namely mud therapy, hydrotherapy (various mineral and aromatic baths, underwater shower massage), magnetotherapy, laser therapy, various types of currents (galvanic, pulse, high frequency), electromagnetic waves UHF, microwave, EHF, inhalationmedicinal herbs, halotherapy, vibration traction apparatus, physiotherapy room, staff of qualified masseurs.
Also in the department of physical methods of treatment, therapeutic methods of acupuncture, electrical stimulation for various neurological diseases are carried out. All physiotherapy treatment is prescribed by the physiotherapist of the department, taking into account the disease and the general condition of the patient.
Rehabilitation
Medical rehabilitation is a complex of therapeutic and prophylactic measures, which is aimed at the maximum possible restoration of the patient's lost abilities after various diseases.
Rehabilitation is also aimed at restoring the patient's muscle strength, as well as preventing recurrence or complications. Today, medical rehabilitation is not just about prescribing any kind of exercise after discharge from the hospital or a course of physiotherapy at the end of the inpatient period.
Rehabilitation is a complex of activities that include the participation of doctors from different fields - physiotherapists, massage therapists, psychologists, speech therapists and others. As a result, it is complex rehabilitation that allows the patient to recover completely, and not partially. The success of treatment depends both on the correct diagnosis and on the optimally selected and carried out treatment, as well as on the correct and timely rehabilitation of the patient.
Rehabilitation has one single goal - the fullest possible restoration of the lost functions in the patient, based on the existing consequences of the injury or illness, and the treatment carried out.
Depending on the area of application, rehabilitation can be: Orthopedic - it is carried out after injuries and operations for diseases of the musculoskeletal system, fractures, malformations of the spine and posture disorders. Neurological and neurosurgical is one of the most serious types of rehabilitation, since the largest number of specialists is involved in its implementation - neurologists, physiotherapists, massage therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, etc.
This rehabilitation is required after injuries and operations on the nervous system (brain, spinal cord), with diseases of the peripheral nervous system (nerve bundles), strokes, paresis and paralysis. Cardiological rehabilitation - rehabilitation after an acute heart attack, with diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
The goal of rehabilitation is the rapid regeneration of muscles during their atrophies associated with prolonged physical inactivity, in order to restore the strength and tone of the limb, restore the full range of motion in the joints after immobilization (after fractures), accelerate the regeneration of cartilage tissue, improve trophism of tissues of organs and bones, increase mobilitywith adhesions in the abdominal cavity after abdominal operations, increasing the general tone of the patient and improving the psychoemotional state, relieving pain and swelling after joint injuries, restoring physical activity after strokes, paresis and paralysis, as well as in the postoperative period in patients after operations associated with diseases and injuriesmusculoskeletal system (after injuries, fractures, bruises and sprains).
It is worth noting that the rehabilitation process itself is based on stimulating the patient's own capabilities under external influence. Physical exercises, modern equipment help to stimulate local and general immunity, improve tissue repair processes, restore blood and lymph circulation.
The methods of medical rehabilitation include the following methods: remedial gymnastics, massage, kinesitherapy, physiotherapeutic treatment, manual therapy, electromyostimulation (it consists in improving the conduction of nerve impulses to skeletal muscles), psychological assistance, speech therapy.
It should be noted that one of the key points in any rehabilitation is physiotherapeutic methods, which are aimed at restoring lost functions and stimulating movements in the patient, accelerating reparative processes in tissues and organs, especially in the musculoskeletal system, nervous system and circulatory system.
One of the advantages of physiotherapy methods is that they do not use medications, which means that there is no risk of allergic reactions and side effects, drug dependence does not develop, and the methods of treatment used are usually not invasive.
A correctly selected complex of the rehabilitation program will help the patient recover as quickly as possible after an illness, injury or operation, will return him a feeling of freedom of movement and the ability to communicate with people around him without any restrictions.