Tom Willemann Health Tips

"Almost Daily Health Tips From Physical Therapist Tom Willemann..."

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Hip Replacement: Game, Set, Match?

Hip Replacement: Game, Set, Match?

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 »

Must Arthritic Knees Be Replaced?

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

“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 »

Should I have surgery?

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?

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 »

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 »

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