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

Physiotherapy Ultrasound

Ultrasound therapy is one of the large number of treatment techniques available to physiotherapists in treating the variety of conditions their patients present with. The frequencies used are in the range of 0.8 to 3.0 Megahertz, with a metal head used to generate the ultrasonic waves and ultrasound gel used between the skin and the head to facilitate transmission. A crystal in the head generates the waves by high frequency vibration and the waves pass through the gel and into the patient.s tissues to cause their effects. A local deep heating effect can be generated but this is typically not desirable so the machine head is kept moving and the settings may be set to pulsed mode so the beam of ultrasound is not continuous. This allows cooling and prevents heat build-up.

The effects of ultrasound can be many, including increasing the local blood flow, breaking down scar tissue or inhibiting its formation, a reduction in local swelling and inflammation. The physiotherapist will determine the size of the area to be treated and its tissue depth, choosing the size of machine head and the frequency and pulsed mode as appropriate. Higher doses and longer times are used for more chronic cases with the reverse for acute inflammatory conditions.

Low back pain treatment - short, cheap, effective?

A recent article reported in The Lancet has reported a good effect on low back pain without significant input in terms of money or time. Six sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy were offered to 400 back pain sufferers whilst a further group of 200 did not get the therapy. Both groups received the standard care from their general practitioners. The intervention aimed at helping self management by challenging beliefs about physical activity and back pain which could be seen to be unhelpful. Patients were encouraged to discuss their underlying beliefs about what was going on and to challenge negative thinking about the pain and the functional difficulties it presents.

Recognising and countering fear avoidance and managing and recovering from flare ups in the pain were also covered. After a year the intervention group had significantly higher scores on questionnaires intended to measure disability and pain. Overall the intervention was cheap and easy to apply, especially when its effectiveness is taken into account, an uncommon effect with treatments for low back pain. Short term effects are much more common after treatments but they rarely last more than a few weeks. The treatments effects in this case did last and so may reflect patients. ability to better self manage.