Therapy Services

Team Approach

Team Approach

When you walk into the therapy department, the first thing you will notice is how well everyone works together. Their goal is to provide personalized one-on-one care to best meet your individual needs.

Evaluation for best treatment approach

The therapists at the Hand & Upper Extremity Center have specialized skills in the evaluation of hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder issues. Your therapist will perform an individualized evaluation tailored to meet your specific needs to determine the best treatment approach.

Specialized Wound Care

The therapists at our clinic have experience in treating a variety of wound issues, including post-surgical incisions, traumatic wounds, and burns. Your therapist can provide whirlpool and debridement of injured tissues to facilitate faster healing! Advanced dressings, applied during your treatment session, are sometimes needed to optimize the healing environment.

BTE strengthening and work conditioning

Using a specialized machine called the BTE, your therapist can set up specific tasks to mimic the activities you need to be able to perform at home or at work. This machine can also be used to get objective measures to compare the strength of your non-injured side to your injured one. This is most helpful recording your progress toward reaching your goals.

Dynamic Orthosis

Your therapist has specialized training in the fabrication of custom dynamic orthoses often needed to protect your hand following surgery or to alleviate stiffness after an injury or surgery.

Physical Agents and Modalities

Your therapist can use a variety of physical agents and modalities including hot packs, Fluidotherapy, electrical stimulation and ultrasound to decrease pain and increase range of motion. These modalities can also help to minimize your swelling or scar adherence to allow you to return to your regular activities more quickly.

Fitting for Pre-fabricated Orthosis

If a pre-fabricated splint is needed, your therapist can help to select the most appropriate one to help relieve your symptoms and optimize your function.

Soft Tissue Mobilization

With some conditions, you may need deep soft tissue mobilization to decrease pain and promote more normal movement patterns. Your therapist can provide these hands-on techniques as a part of your treatment regimen.

Biofeedback

Biofeedback is tool that can be used to help recruit muscles, as needed in a case of prolonged immobilization, or to relax them to promote pain relief. The biofeedback unit senses electrical pulses within the muscle and displays them on a computer screen so you can get an idea of how well they are recruiting or relaxing. Our state-of-the-art biofeedback unit also an electrical stimulation component allowing a pulse of electricity to help "kick in" the muscles. This can be advantageous following a severe injury.

Therapeutic Exercise

Using various types of strengthening techniques, your therapist can gradually progress your strength to get you back to full function!

Joint mobilization

Your therapist can help to reduce joint stiffness through specific manual techniques to restore your range of motion.

Cross Friction Massage

Your therapist can provide this manual technique to help alleviate symptoms from repetitive use.

Myofascial Release

Your therapist can use this technique to improve the mobility of the tissue around your muscles to decrease pain and improve your function.

Custom Static Orthosis

Hand therapists specialize in fabricating custom orthoses to protect injured structures to assist with movement.

Neuromuscular Re-education

Sometimes your body can forget how to move correctly after an injury. Your therapist can help teach your body how to move more normally through verbal and manual cues.

Edema (Swelling) Control

After an injury or surgery it is natural to have some swelling. This is a normal process of healing; however, if the swelling (also called “edema”) remains for a prolonged period of time it can cause joint stiffness and problems with your tendons moving. Your therapist can provide various types of treatment techniques to minimize your swelling after surgery or an injury.

These techniques can include manual edema mobilization, use of compression sleeves or gloves, Kinesiotaping, and active movement.

Static-progressive Orthosis

Custom-molded orthoses are sometimes needed to help minimize stiffness and improve your motion following a surgical procedure or injury. Your therapist has extensive training in the fabrication of custom orthoses and is able to determine what will best fit your needs. These types of orthoses can be remolded as you progress.

Taping Techniques

The therapists at our clinic have received training in various taping techniques to help facilitate the correct movement pattern, decrease swelling, or promote pain relief. Taping can be extremely beneficial in carrying over gains made during your treatment session!

Therapauctic Activities

Research has shown that performing activities that resemble your daily tasks are more beneficial in restoring your function. Your therapist can assist you in setting up various activities that mimic daily activities to facilitate improvements in your functional strength and endurance.

Scar Management

After an injury or surgery, your body will make scar tissue to heal the area. This is a normal occurrence; however, sometimes the scars can become thick and adherent, which can limit your ability to move. Your therapist can utilize various types of treatment techniques to maximize your scar tissue mobility to help restore your tendon and joint mobility.