Jake Johnson was an avid tennis player before pain from a degenerative hip joint took him off the courts. When his doctor said that he needed total hip replacement surgery, he thought his tennis playing days were over. But were they? In the past, most surgeons recommended against playing tennis after a hip replacement. Today, artificial hipContinue Reading »
"Almost Daily Health Tips From Physical Therapist Tom Willemann..."
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Tag: Osteoarthritis
Must Arthritic Knees Be Replaced?
If your doctor says you have arthritis in your knee, does that mean you will need knee replacement surgery? Must Arthritic Knees Be Replaced? The short answer is not necessarily. Fortunately, your body can compensate for the loss of function caused by arthritic damage to cartilage and bone in a knee joint, even if x-rayContinue Reading »
“Cementing” and Knee Replacement Surgery
More than 580,000 knee replacement surgeries—the vast majority of them successful—are performed in the United States each year. In this procedure, special acrylic bone cement is often employed to adhere the new artificial knee parts to your leg bones. Its technical name is polymethylmethacrylate, or PMMA. What is PMMA? In some situations, the surgeon canContinue Reading »
Bow-legged. Knock-kneed. How Are These Conditions Treated?
Many people who are bow-legged (a condition called varus) or knock-kneed (a condition called valgus) do not realize how much extra stress they are putting on their knees. A normally aligned knee is designed to distribute weight equally to the inner and outer part of the joint. This uneven distribution of stress increases the wearContinue Reading »
Should I have surgery?
Should I have surgery? I always recommend friends, patients and family to get an physical therapy evaluation before they undergo an orthopedic surgery. The reason is twofold. Evaluation ensures that loss of strength or range of motion is not the root cause of their problem. Various studies have shown that osteoarthritis may be present butContinue Reading »
Does running cause arthritis?
A common assumption of most athletes and non-athletes is that running leads to knee osteoarthritis(OA). The joints can’t tolerate the constant pounding of running. FALSE! A study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine 2008 August 35(2): 133-138 shows evidence that this may not be true. In this study researchers looked at 45 runners andContinue Reading »
Back pain?–Don’t sit for longer than 20 minutes. Possible or Impossible?
I tell my patients with low back pain, neck pain, sciatica, stenosis, osteoarthritis, spondylosis or spinal pain to limit sitting to no longer than 20minutes. At that time I prefer if patients stand up and walk around to change the position of the spine. A great option is using a adjustable height desk that allowsContinue Reading »
The Recipe to Relieve a Baker Cyst
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 If you suffer from knee pain, the culprit might be a Baker cyst, an accumulation of joint fluid that creates a bulge at the back of the knee. The bulge is noticeable, and a physician can usually diagnose it accurately by taking a history and feelingContinue Reading »
Acute ACL Tear- Is it safe to try physical therapy first?
A recent study in the British Medical Journal in January 2013 study compared early acute Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction surgery followed by physical therapy and another group who had just Rehabilitation Only (RO) followed by an acute ACL injury with the option of having surgery during the term of the study. Both groups wereContinue Reading »
Is surgery better than physical therapy if you have arthritis and meniscal tears?
Absolutely NOT. In a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine (Katz, J. N., Surgery versus Physical Therapy for a Meniscal Tear and Osteoarthritis. March 19, 2013 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1301408) researchers looked at over 351 patients 45 years or older that reported knee pain while suffering from meniscal tears and mild to moderate arthritis.Continue Reading »