Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation

What Is Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation?

Musculoskeletal rehabilitation is the branch of medicine that focuses on treating people with musculoskeletal injuries and functional deficits in the patient caused by changes to or deviations from normal anatomy. Musculoskeletal rehab can be defined as treatment for muscular and skeletal issues that are chronic or acute. You may require this kind of therapy if you have arthritis, a fracture, a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, or other painful conditions.

It can also be used to treat pain associated with soft tissue damage, common after surgery.

Musculoskeletal problems are very common – they affect approximately 50% of the population. So you may be surprised to learn that at least 200,000 people have a traumatic injury each year. Traumatic injuries are far from uncommon.

For those 200,000 people, the consequences can be very serious – including loss of function, chronic pain, and even death. It is, therefore, vital that we learn how to prevent and manage them.

The complication rate for traumatic injuries has been estimated at between 50 and 80%. It means that if an individual suffers a traumatic injury, it is more than likely that they will incur some form of injury in the process.

It is very common for these injuries to take a long time to heal, yet this is exactly what happens in musculoskeletal rehabilitation. The simple act of moving about can be painful and painful movement can cause further problems.

Musculoskeletal problems can also be more severe than a mere sprain or strain. They can involve injuries such as fractures, nerve damage, joint instability, and even deformities.

Musculoskeletal rehabilitation is, therefore, a long-term process. It can take months or years to heal, so individuals should be prepared to stay on the road to full recovery for a long time.

There are key rehabilitation goals:

1. To restore and/or maintain the function of the body part affected to the best possible level.
2. To improve physical activity tolerance (the amount of time a patient can participate in an exercise program).
3. To improve functional independence (or ability to perform activities of daily living).
4. To control pain and associated symptoms (to keep it from inhibiting rehabilitation progress).
5. To minimize the risk of recurrence of the injury.

How Does Musculoskeletal Rehab Work?

Musculoskeletal rehab is often a combination of therapeutic exercises and manual manipulation treatments. Therapeutic exercises will help strengthen a weakened area, and manual manipulation treatments will relieve pressure from joints and muscles. Combining these two treatments helps reduce pain in the area, improves mobility, and can even increase the length of time you can spend performing physical activities.

The Impact of Musculoskeletal Conditions and Injuries

Many people in this era experience pain. The pain can be a result of many different medical conditions. And the Musculoskeletal condition is one of them. Injuries and Musculoskeletal are the main cause of the pain experienced by the population of cancer-free people.

Muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, and bones are all vital to body function. They allow a body to bend, rotate, extend, and force energy through the human body to maintain posture and movement. Muscles are made up of contractile muscle fibers that store energy for short bursts of work such as jumping or resting. Contractile muscle fibers contain myofibrils (a series of filaments that can be found in both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscles) which attach to the ends of long myofilaments. These myofilaments line up in long chains. These chains allow muscles to contract and contract repeatedly, allowing action to happen at different times and then stop.

This explanation of muscles’ structure can help understand some of the common injuries that occur when muscles are injured–injuries that can result in chronic pain. In particular, it is important to understand how damage causes chronic pain –damage can occur within a muscle fiber or muscle tissue and damage outside a muscle fiber or group of muscle fibers.

Muscle fibers have many layers of protection, all of which need to be damaged for a muscle to be injured. The outermost layer (epimysium) connects one muscle to the bone and can be affected by sprains, strains, or just being overused (among other things). The next layer is the perimysium layer which surrounds individual myofibrils within the muscle fiber. Injury-induced pain can occur if this layer is damaged. If pain is significant enough, the muscle fiber may have to be removed and replaced.

The middle layer (myofibril) is where most of the strength and activity takes place. Interleukin 6—a cytokine produced by immune cells, macrophages, and other cells—is needed for muscle repair and tissue repair; however, repeated stress triggers IL-6 to build up in the bloodstream. It leads to less muscle repair at the site of injury and can put a strain on the heart.

The innermost muscle fibers are the thickest and most numerous and are called sarcoplasmic reticulum. They create water by removing water from cells to help keep muscles strong. Injury triggers the release of histamine that results in swelling of the cells. This can change the way muscles work, thus changing a pain sensation.

It is important to understand cytokines’ role in the inflammatory response, which has been seen as a major component of nociceptive processing. Cytokines are released during injury response, which can help in repair and recovery. However, too many or too intense cytokines can increase pain because they can cause blood vessels to leak fluid and become leaky at the site of injury.

The important role of cytokines in the inflammatory response also provides insight into the role of IL-6 in muscle pain. The body produces IL-6 when muscle tissue is injured. The body needs IL-6 to repair muscle fibers. However, the overproduction of IL-6 stops repair. Overproduction of IL-6 has been shown to cause fatigue and increase pain receptors. Without the repair, the pain receptors send a signal that causes a person to feel like they are being struck.

The patients suffering from Musculoskeletal injury pain have the common factor of depression in most cases. Depression causes a lack of interest in doing any activity. Inactiveness only worsens the situation and might even lead to more chronic diseases.

The condition is also among the causes of human disability among the population worldwide. It has also been ranked the fourth cause, with reduced wellbeing being the third.

Connective tissues, cartilage, joints, and muscle are some parts connected to the pain. Some of the conditions might even cause damage to the muscles and skeleton.

Here are some Musculoskeletal cases which might require a healthcare provider or therapist to check on.

Traumatic Fractures

A lot of people have had their bones fractured at least once. But some of the fractures are not as bad as others. There are four types of fractures, ranging from simple to crucial fractures.

Patients with simple fractures heal at home while taking the drugs prescribed by a doctor plus added therapy. On the other hand, a traumatic fracture is a crucial fracture. It is caused by applying a lot of force to a body part. Conditions like Osteoporosis can lead to a traumatic fracture too. Osteoporosis makes bones weaker than usual which causes a higher risk rate of fracturing during impact. Such occurrences are called pathological fractures, and even a force can cause them as well.

Treatment of a fracture varies according to the position and severity of the fracture.

The skeletal system affects the body as a whole. It is made up of several different bones that are supported by ligaments and tendons. Body parts mostly affected by fractures include:

1. Hands
2. Elbow
3. Knees
4. Ankles
5. Arms
6. Wrists
7. Feet
8. Legs
9. Fingers

Fracture signs might include:

1. Pain
2. Limited movement
3. Inflammation
4. Bruising
5. Tenderness
6. Redness
7. Warmth
8. Deformation of the part
9. Discoloration
10. The body part bending abnormally

Although all these signs point to a fracture, more tests are performed to confirm a fracture. The most common tests used are x-ray, bone scan, and magnetic resonance imaging. CAT and CT scans also help a lot in the process.

Casts and splints treat fractures and are what healthcare professionals use. The idea applied is that the bone that got fractured is supposed to be pushed back in place. Pain-relieving medication relieves the patients’ pain. In case of a severe fracture, surgery is performed to help in the treatment.

Spine Surgery

The spine is a very vital bone. Nerves that connect body parts to the brain pass through this bone. Hence an injury to this delicate bone can cause permanent disability to the patient. Some of the disabilities cases are spine injury inflicted.

Surgery may be required when it comes to spinal cord injuries as a treatment process. Osteoporosis can also be the cause of surgery due to a complicated fracture.

Varying surgeries performed on patients depend on severity, condition, and procedure. Spinal cord surgeries are sometimes just called back surgery.

Here are some surgical procedures performed on a spinal cord injury:

1. Laminectomy
2. Discectomy
3. Spinal fusion
4. Foraminotomy
5. Interlaminar implant
6. Disk replacement

Each of the following procedures carries a set of risks, benefits, and also potential drawbacks. Rehabilitation is healthy for people who have undergone spine surgery.

Stretch exercise, medicated therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy are strategies that rehabilitation offers for better healing.

Arthroscopy

Joint affecting problems are identified using an arthroscopy. It is a relatively uncomplicated task and only needs a tiny incision for the diagnostic to take place. For the process to go through, a fiber-optic camera has to be available.

The camera should then inserted into the injured joint through the incision to get a perfect image of the affected joint. The image is displayed on a high-definition screen where the doctor or healthcare provider can see the image accurately. The process often provides data that leads to an accurate diagnosis.

Proper hygiene is necessary to make sure the incision part does not get infected in the process and after the diagnosis. Rehabilitation after this process includes a couple of exercises that help strengthen the muscle and bone tendons to avoid a similar future occurrence.

Limb Reconstruction

It is a process that helps in terms of rectification of the length and shape of the human limb. It is performed on a patient if the shape or length causes a functioning disorder to the patient.

Joint stabilization, position correction, and bone alignment are some of the techniques used to assist in the bone reconstruction procedure. The healthcare provider analyses the patient first.

After the process, rehabilitation, including therapy, is advised.

The Long-Term Musculoskeletal Condition Rehabilitation

Surgical procedures involved in a Musculoskeletal condition and injuries need care afterward since it takes time to fully heal. But it gets intricate in cases where this condition causes disability.

For proper care, long-term rehabilitation is advised. The patient gets twenty-four-seven assistance from medical staff who are qualified. Healthcare providers can also follow up on the patient easily, relieving traveling stress to the patient.

Professional health care providers can be part of the rehabilitation program. To make sure the patients in these facilities are well assessed before any treatment compilation is made. Occupational therapy offered in these facilities helps the patients regain their mobility after the surgery.

Access to healthcare experts who come up with a list of exercises to boost the patient’s recovery is also a rehabilitation center advantage. Professional healthcare providers assist the patient medication-wise, from Anti-inflammatory for inflammation to pain-relieving medication for the pain.

Conclusion

Musculoskeletal and injuries cause a lot of pain to many people living all across the globe. But the pain can be relieved, as we have seen. And with all the medical discoveries being made every day, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

References

https://www.healthline.com/health/how-many-muscles-are-in-the-human-body#types-of-muscles
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ap/chapter/overview-of-the-skeletal-system/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/12254-musculoskeletal-system-normal-structure–function
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=85&contentid=P01161
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/musculoskeletal-rehabilitation