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

Hip Dislocation

The hip is one of the largest and strongest joints in the body, being a deep ball and socket joint with powerful ligaments holding it all together. This means that dislocation is rare and only occurs in the event of significantly violent events such as motor vehicle crashes. In an accident the thigh may be forced into a position where the hip is levered out of its socket, tearing its surrounding ligaments and remaining out of socket. This causes extreme pain and patients have to be anaesthetised to relocate the joint. Treatment is complicated by the potential threat to the blood supply to the head of the femur.

Dislocation can also occur centrally, where the head of the femur is driven through the socket, fracturing it and ending up inside the pelvis. This injury usually needs internal fixation and significant time non weight bearing until the fractures heal. Normal dislocations are also treated with a period of non weight bearing to ensure the blood supply to the head of the femur, which was disrupted by the dislocation, restores itself. Once weight bearing is allowed the physiotherapist can instruct the patient in normal gait and exercises to restore the strength of the hip muscles.

Slipped Disc

Slipped disc is the term used in normal speech to describe a severe back problem, particularly one which involves severe leg pain. However, it is a misnomer in that the disc is unable to slip anywhere so a slipped disc indicates a different kind of pathology. The disc outer covering (annulus fibrosus) is made up of multiple overlapping levels of tough material which encloses a more gel-like interior (nucleus pulposus). With time the layers of the annulus can become fewer or split along certain lines, leading in some cases to the material of the nucleus protruding to the outside of the disc.

This protrusion of part of internal gel through the outer layers of the disc is the so-called slipped disc, known more technically as a disc prolapse or disc protrusion. The protrusion may aggravate the nearby nerve root by compressing it or chemically irritating it, leading to pain in the part of the body supplied by that nerve. The commonest syndrome is sciatica, a severe leg pain usually below the knee which is caused by pressure on the one the lower lumbar nerves. Most attacks of sciatica resolve on their own but if not then discectomy is a highly successful operation.