A Brief Note On Gait Deviation And Postural Asymmetry

OrthoOklahoma is an orthopedic medical clinic with a physical therapy branch that provides outpatient physical therapy care. The facility has a staff of three licensed physical therapists and a physical therapy assistant along with four physical therapy techs. I was able to observe all three physical therapists, Megan Ripley, Joe Ogle and Ken Roberts. At OrthoOklahoma, the most common patients are post-surgery from repairs of muscles, bones or joints. While shadowing these therapists, I observed cases of total knee replacement, total hip replacement, ACL/meniscus repair, rotator cuff repair, frozen shoulder, labrum repair, and other ailments from wear-and-tear and aging. This experience allowed me to talk to physical therapists about the ins and outs of their job, learn about different exercises and routines for treatment of injuries, and really get an idea of the work it takes to become a well-respected physical therapist.

Have you ever bent down to pick something up or sprinted after your dog because he got loose? Not many people in today’s society pay attention to their body movement. They often take their body’s ability to move normally for granted. A person’s biomechanics are essential to everyday life, without being able to move properly one cannot perform everyday tasks. Unfortunately, there are people who are not able to do so and face many hardships in their life and may be in a lot of pain. Therefore, these people seek professional assistance to help them regain their ability to function normally. Usually, they end up in the care of a physical therapist and his assistant. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, physical therapist assistants

According to Su et all (2009), knee replacement is an effective way to find relief of pain and improve mobility, but most importantly giving the patient education and skills during early recovery. In comparison, all articles focused on the need of improving mobility after surgery. Assessing the patient’s abilities and the need for physical therapy and keeping an eye out for complications. A main focus was pain relief and that recovery for each patient varies, but it is important to get them ambulating with assistive devices soon after surgery. My patient at Kindred, had continuous assessment and an interdisciplinary team that assisted in her road to

The Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) is a tool that is administered, and scored due to its’ simple applicability to a vast variety of disability levels and conditions and all lower-extremity sites. This particular scale is easy to read when it comes to understanding error-associated measurements and for verifying the least clinically important score changes and is adequate enough to measure of reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change, at a position that is proportionate with application at an individual patient level (1). The LEFS scale abstract framework is based on the World Health Organization’s model of the handicap and disabled. It was developed to be competent to manage, score, and record in the medical record with

The participants then completed the functional evaluation by completing three one-leg hop tests on each limb. The longest distance was recorded and calculated as the percentage of the performance of the ACL reconstructed leg over the uninvolved leg, the scores were calculated as the limb symmetric index (LSI). The authors of this study defined the ceiling effect as the percent of participants who received the maximum score of 100 points. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between both scales and the limb symmetric index and was interpreted as r > 0.5 which indicated a strong association. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was then used to examine the distribution

I recently traveled to a less fortunate community on a PT-based medical mission trip. It left me with a taste of utmost sadness but yet it gave me a gratifying and exhilarating feeling. Helping individuals in challenging circumstances (such as those who have not walked in years) experience optimal movement with my assistance motivates me to become a physical therapist. The development of primitive braces like AFO’s, robotic limbs, and movement stimulation devices fascinate me because they help those who would normally be confined to a sedentary lifestyle experience “typical human movement.” As a physical therapist, my level of devotion to patients such as those I saw on my mission trip and those with whom I have helped in the clinical setting would never waiver. I would strive to provide genuine care and attentiveness to patient’s needs and goals. I look forward to facilitating research and evidence based methods of treatment which promote maximum results for patients that subsequently allows them to return to their activities of daily living. I have personally (via work, my own therapy experience, and observation hours) witnessed the incredible effects physical therapy can evoke on ones life. I would be honored to fulfill the role as someone's PT and mentor through their injury, chronic condition, litigation, or neurological

Knee complexities: Hardened knee is bringing on various useful shortfalls incorporate expanded LE length and circumduction required for foot leeway. Vitality utilization expanded, normally in patients with minimal utilitarian save. Lower leg and foot intricacies: Lower leg and foot distortions are comprised of plantar flexion and toes reversal (Balaban and Tok, 2014 and Martin et al. 2014).

The procedure always spoke to me as an embodiment of the human spirit. ‘ If we cannot fix it one way, we will do it another; If we cannot mend the brain, we will correct the feet.’ Ever since my operation, I have used this same outlook to overcome all the handicaps. When I came home from the procedure, I had both legs in soft-wrapped splints. I was to be non-weight bearing and to keep still. The recovery period was frustrating for me and absolutely maddening for my mother. I had no interest in being immobile. So within days of coming home in the splints, I had to be brought back to the hospital. I had snapped the splints in to by trying to crawl. Afterwards, I was put into hard castings and I was more cautious. Once out of my castings, I had to endure a year or more of physical therapy, because I had to learn how to walk again. To this day, I refuse to let my disability stunt my potential. I have tried at every available opportunity to challenge myself, to keep on fighting, and to invent ways around my

Orthotic and Prosthetic education in the classroom must be broad in order to cover the amount of pathologies, disorders, and amputations a CPO will most often see. There is no way that every single potential case can be covered in the education nor is it possible for an example of every case to be brought in as a teaching tool for students to hone their patient/practitioner skills. Our education with a patient model stops after a few hours of wearing the device, but in the real world, that patient will go on to wear the device much longer and need more follow-up care than we see in school. This dilemma is where clinical experiences come in to play for an Orthotics and Prothetics student. During clinical experiences, students get the chance to see practitioners work with patients of all different diagnoses and learn from their experiences. These learning experiences give students something that they cannot get in the classroom, real-life in the moment patient interactions with patients that are not paid to be there as a learning tool.

Contrary to the critics’ beliefs, athletic amputees have many more disadvantages than supposed advantages. An able-bodied athlete can start practicing for competitions immediately, but an amputee needs to work with a professional prosthetist. They need to be fitted for their new Flex-foot Cheetahs which proves to be a time-consuming task. According to Monique Mohka, “A prosthetist considers the general health, height, weight, level of amputation, and the length and shape of the residual limb of the person with the amputation, as well as the nature of the running event(s)” (45). There are many trial and errors in order to find the perfect fit to maximize comfort and athletic success. This individualized and extensive process can set athlete

For some amputees, there may be a physical and emotional pain with the lost of a limb. Bionics may not look and feel like a biological limb, but it comes close in providing the functions and fills the blank space of a missing limb. Providing individuals with bionic prosthetic technology assists in the reduction of health care cost by enabling an individual to maintain an appropriate activity level. Bionic limbs “enables people to return to work and other important daily activities faster and easier than before” ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 721). With the use of bionics an amputee can walk with a natural gait and reduce the occurrence of stress on other joints ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 725). This alleviates the chance of chronic or acute pain. An amputee can achieve a close to normal or normal metabolic energy exertion and reduced the amount of energy exerted from the amputee ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 725). This may give the wearer the ability to withstand longer minor physical activities, such as walking for longer periods of time. Individals that wear BioM walk at 23% faster than the speed of wearing a traditional prosthetic ( Hixenbaugh, 2010, p. 725). This gives an amputee to walk at a natural speed. Through the use of external input bionics use, amputees gain the ability to safely walk on different terrains and stairs. Overall bionic prosthetics improve quality of life for amputee veterans as well as other individuals with

This was true I could heal with a limp. So, rest assures I put in 100%+ effort and more when I went through rehabilitation physical therapy. I was determined that I had to walk and run again. So, in life I had to leap like a deer with hinds feet physically and emotionally. I share this with you because I had to crawl to get around. It was 1 year process of rehabilitation for me to accomplish running. In my process of recover the other half of the year I worked out and exercised to gain strength to walk and run. So, I did not put in 50% I put 100%+ into walking and running again on my feet. This was a mental battle as well as a physical battle to go through recovery to walk and run. Today, though I can tell you I reached for my goals of walking and running again at 100% capacity and gained recovery with no limp. So, only

Also, Alena Grabowski, another researcher from MIT, claims that a wrong conclusion was deduced from the studies about prosthetics. Grabowski and her team studied how six different elite amputee athletes performed with their prosthetics. The research team found out that the ground force for these athletes in their prosthesis-equipped leg was approximately nine percent lower than in their unaffected leg. Therefore, amputees are actually at a disadvantage and must propel their leg faster to make up for the lower ground force (Jha).

Abstract—Lower extremity amputation constitute high percentage of limb amputation which significantly reduce the motion ability and quality of life of the amputees. Therefore the most important goal in the design of prosthesis is to restore function of the lost limb. Most of the commercially available ankle-foot prostheses are passive and thus cause many gait pathologies for below knee amputees, such as high metabolic demand, poor shock tolerance and asymmetric gait patterns.

Physical therapy has grown increasing more useful as the years’ progress and more is learned about the human body and its movements, interactions, and mechanisms. Someone may go to physical therapy for injury, recovery, in order to maintain function, or even due to a stroke and is trying to work on walking again. Patients of a physical therapist can include, but is not limited to, elderly, children, accident victims, athletes, those with conditions such as arthritis or fractures, etc. The possibilities are endless for potential physical therapy patients (Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences).