New Treatments for Carpal Tunnel and Repetitive Stress Injuries

May 7th, 2010

Facing possible hand surgery for a nerve injury or carpal tunnel syndrome and perhaps you want to try Physical Therapy First? I am posting a five year old article to inform, to educate and hopefully avoid others the surgical knife. This is not to discount those that have a surgical need and I am grateful for those amazing surgeons who put people back together when they truly need it. The fact is there are alot of options for non- traumatic, repetitive type injuries with many who make a full recovery.
Please pass this along if you find a need to share some info and knowledge to make an informed decision. There are only handfuls-perhaps hundreds of certified hand therapists in the United States trained in the above manual therapies- these are named: Graston, ASTYM, and Active Release Techniques: see the article on Graston hand therapy for scarring. The Graston Technique: A Growing Trend in Hand Therapy: (Graston is a form of “Instrumented Assisted soft tissue mobilization techniques named after an indivdiual who designed the instruments. Another very effective manual technique used to break down scar tissue is ”Active Release Techniques”, patented system and administered by trained professionals(MDs, DPTs, DCs, CHTs).Go to http://ow.ly/1FbxY The next article is on Active Release and Carpal Tunnel http://ow.ly/1FbC  The fact is that most MDs including surgeons do not know about these treatments. I asked a number of hand surgeons and they do not think we as therapists can break up adhesions-”the tissue is just too strong” I completely disagree and hope you will have an open mind. “There is little evidence!” (Only hundreds of thousands of case studies. Manual medicine is not funded by drug companies, folks.) Most of our great docs sadly just do not know. I have seen hundreds of excellent results with these methods. Nothing surprises me about the body’s ability to heal with precise manual work to sometimes jump start the system. I have a fabulous job, and we see these results daily! We get to witness miracles every day. The nervous system is very complex. It is not just scar tissue, movements become impaired, and muscle activation patterns are altered by pain. Lives become altered, and these are huge fears and frightening losses for those individuals who are getting worse.
These methods are only techniques–they rely on the exact knowledege of the practitioner to PINPOINT the exact living anatomy, to understand the mechanism of injury and to take a thorough history, to administer special tests; to diagnose. Ultimately these techniques facilitate a healing response by your own body. Then it is up to the individual to change the body’s neurological imprint by moving as much as you can painfree. This is called the ability of the body and the nervous system to change, this is known by the definition: neuroplasticity. Mobility is life and the most powerful medicine for the body is motion!
These above techniques above are considered “tools in the tool box ” used by a skilled and dedicated physical therapists or chiropractors. They rely on a thinking clinician who can think outside the box and the excellent/ powerful outcomes depend on a competent and experienced clinician.

Posted by Tammara Moore, DPT at 9:05 am: No comments

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