Physiotherapists in Potters Bar treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Lumbar Stenosis

There are many painful syndromes which involve the lumbar spine, with the discs, ligaments, joints, muscles and nerves all implicated in pain production. Older people can present with symptoms which indicate a stenosis of their vertebral canal. The vertebral or spinal canal runs down the back and carries the spinal cord, allowing the nerve roots to exit to the body at each spinal level (each disc level). The spinal canal can be congenitally narrow which increases the chances of developing spinal stenosis with age. As degenerative changes occur in the spinal structures the spinal canal can become narrowed and tight.

The symptoms of spinal stenosis typically do not include back pain but rather leg pain, often bilateral, and worsened by walking but better with sitting. Typically presenting in people of 65 years or older, spinal stenosis can also present as a nerve root irritation of a sciatic type due to stenosis of the exit for the spinal nerve root. Physiotherapy is not usually very useful and little is found on examination apart from a reduction in spinal extension and many people manage their symptoms over time as best they can, although surgical spinal decompression can be very successful in relieving the symptoms.

Physiotherapy for Acute Neck Pain

Some physiotherapists perform manipulations on patients with acute neck pain and the evidence supports manipulation as a useful treatment for acute neck pain in that it reduces the time of pain and disability. A few sessions of this kind of treatment should kick start the process of improvement and long term treatment with manipulation is not recommended. Mobilisation techniques, a less forceful form of manipulation, are frequently employed by physiotherapists as part of a treatment programme which might include massage and exercises. Massage is used less often now but can be useful to reduce muscle spasm and give a feeling of release to the soft tissues.

Physiotherapists or other therapy practitioners may employ other treatment techniques such as electrical therapy, acupuncture or other more alternative treatments. While individuals may claim these help them it is not clear whether they are useful and improvement should be clear after a short course of treatment, with extended treatment again not recommended. Physios will give advice to reduce aggravating activities, pace things to prevent overdoing and progress as quickly as possible towards normal. Treatment is intended to get the process of recovery started and reduce the likelihood of the patient adopting habits which will hinder their recovery.