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

Hand Injuries - Prevention

Many hand injuries can be prevented by taking sensible precautions or by avoiding obviously risky behaviours. One of the most common behaviours, especially amongst young men in social situations, is to damage their hands by punching each other or punching objects in anger such as doors or walls. This commonly results in fractures to the metacarpals or fingers, injuries which need careful management for the best functional outcome. The use of knives should be carefully regulated with training and supervision for those who work with them routinely. Separating frozen objects with a pointed knife whilst holding the object is a relatively common reason for stabbing a knife through the palm.

Health and safety regulations should be closely observed when operating machinery or dealing with electrical equipment. Injuries to the hands are almost always preventable with a little planning and forethought. Machinery with moving parts, especially rotational ones, requires operators to avoid wearing gloves or jewellery or loose clothing especially around the cuffs. In other situations gloves of the appropriate type should be used. Hands should not be placed in dangerous positions, so push sticks for saws or brushes to clean away machine debris should be employed.

Common Causes of Disc Prolapse

Spinal surgeons know that most disc herniations they are required to operate on are mostly made up of nucleus pulposus and rarely consist of much of the annulus fibrosis, which never occurs alone in a prolapse. Typical actions which risk prolapse are lifting and carrying, imposing flexion, side bending and compression loads on the lumbar spine at the same time. Combinations of these forces are what make a prolapse more likely, such as falling on the bottom whilst the legs are straight out in front, combining compression and bending. Other combinations could include tripping and so bending forward whilst carrying, reaching forward to catch a heavy object or lifting something heavy after a period when the spine has been in flexion.

If the upper body is pulled forwards suddenly and a force applied this is the most risky posture as the back muscles are contracting most strongly to resist the forward movement at that time and so increasing the compression through the spine. Due to fact that the discs are tighter and more swollen with water in the morning, it seems that disc prolapse may be more likely to occur at this time. Repeated bending in heavy jobs could also cause prolapse with time.