Are conservative treatments no longer decreasing your hip osteoarthritis pain? Have you been told your arthritis is in the end stage? People who answered yes to these questions are likely considering a total hip replacement surgery.
That’s not surprising considering how many hip replacement surgeries are done in the U.S. every year. It’s reported that more than 450,000 U.S. adults have a hip replacement annually. People who are considering hip replacement surgery should also consider what their recovery process will be like. Physical therapists can be an integral part of your recovery process. These specialists can use multiple therapy techniques to benefit your hip replacement surgery recovery.
Three techniques that are often used in hip replacement surgery recovery plans
One recovery goal that most patients have after a hip replacement surgery is to recover as quickly as possible. A physical therapist can help you meet this and other recovery goals with therapy methods like:
- Therapeutic exercises — Your physical therapist may start showing you how to do therapeutic exercises as soon as the day of your surgery. Such exercises can offer many benefits to your recovery. One of the biggest of these benefits is increasing strength in your hip muscles. A study of post-hip surgery therapeutic exercises reports that they led to:
- A 24.4% increase in hip flexor strength.
- A 47.8% improvement in hip extensor strength.
- A 41.2% boost in hip abductor strength.
- Soft tissue mobilization (STM) — This technique is a type of manual therapy. It involves your physical therapist using their hands to apply pressure and friction to soft tissue. A benefit that STM can offer after hip replacement surgery is increased hip function. One study reveals that this technique helped improve post-surgery function scores by 44 points after 12 sessions.
- Joint mobilization — This therapy method is another form of manual therapy. In this case, your therapist uses their hands to move a joint through its normal range of motion (ROM). One study shows just how effective joint mobilization can be for restoring normal ROM. This study reveals that a patient had buttock pain and ROM restriction that occurred two years after hip surgery. Four joint mobilization sessions helped to completely restore the patient’s ROM.
Panther Physical Therapy offers hip replacement surgery recovery services
Looking for help with your hip replacement surgery recovery? Our therapy specialists at Panther PT are ready and willing to help you with your recovery process. That’s why we offer post-surgical rehab. This service includes our physical therapists building you a recovery plan that’s personalized to your specific needs.
Other services we offer that can help you recover from a hip replacement include:
- Pre-surgical rehab designed to help prepare your body for the rigors of surgery and reduce your pain.
- At-home care sessions where your physical therapist will come to your home to work with you.
- Virtual therapy sessions that involve working with your therapist over a secure online video feed.
Contact our team today for more information about all the surgery recovery services we offer or to schedule your initial appointment.