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

Falls and Healthy Bones

Falling in adults is an important matter with involvement of around 30% of people over sixty-five years old and half of those over eighty-five years. There are significant risks to falling for elderly people, with many much older people dying and or suffering loss of mobility or other problems. Ninety percent of hip fractures are caused by falling and this comes with a very high cost both personally and financially. Only twenty percent of people who fracture their hip recover well enough to attain their previous level of functional abilities which includes walking. There may be many reasons for a person falling and the evidence for the many interventions proposed being effective is not very good.

Physiotherapists prescribe exercise programmes as part of their main arsenal of skills, with good evidence that well designed programmes which include training balance and strength can be effective at reducing falls in the community. Patient access to assessment and treatment by a physiotherapist is however variable in the UK, with hip fracture patients likely to receive this (due to admission to hospital) but patients with non-hip fractures are much less likely to receive this even when admitted. Physios have a much greater role in this matter which they have not taken up.

Knee Cartilage Injuries

The knee cartilages are properly known as menisci and are almost circular cartilaginous structures which look like banked tracks, sitting between the flat upper surfaces of the tibia and the large rounded condyles of the lower end of the femur. Their function is not entirely understood but may be to guide the femoral condyles as they slide and glide, to distribute synovial fluid evenly around the knee or to give sensory feedback about the complex positions adopted by the knee at any moment. The menisci are vulnerable at times as the large femoral condyles can roll over them and being attached to the tibial upper surface they cannot always move out of the way.

This can result in the meniscus suffering compressive forces applied by the condyle and becoming injured in the process. Tears of the menisci are common injuries and occur in various patterns, common examples being a parrot beak tear and a bucket handle tear. The parrot beak is a small tear at the edge which then appears like a bird.s beak. If the tear is along the substance of the meniscus it can cause a loop with attachments at both ends, like a bucket handle.