The Importance of Post-Surgical Physical Therapy: Accelerating Recovery and Restoring Mobility
By: Dr Tyler Fallon, PT, DPT
As humans age, the natural process of wear and tear on tissues, resulting from years of use and overuse, becomes inevitable over time. Where conservative management of symptoms with physical therapy and restorative and regenerative medicine fails to relieve symptoms or allow us to perform the activities of daily living or leisure workout activities, surgery becomes a viable option to correct joint mechanics or status, as well as repair possibly injured tissue.
After a period of time typically determined by the surgeon to allow for proper healing, early mobilization with supervised skilled physical therapy has been determined in many cases to improve outcomes and accelerate return to regular activities and sporting activities. The role physical therapy plays follows a typical progression of early pain relief, through controlling acute symptoms such as swelling, stiffness, and pain, followed by a restorative phase of rehabilitating normal range of motion, joint mechanics, and strength in a slow and controlled manner as to not disrupt normal tissue healing, and still progress the patient toward goals set usually at the time of evaluation depending on the needs and wants of the patients. A physical therapist will help to determine appropriate timelines, and progression of exercise and movement, working under the guidance of surgical precautions set by a medical doctor. In addition, a physical therapist can help keep a patient active safely during their recovery with modifications to exercise regimens so as to not disrupt the healing and recovery process and still allow for regular movement as we know is so important.
After surgery, under the guidance of a medical doctor setting precautionary guidelines, a physical therapist will first look to reduce the acute inflammatory process with pain-control, reducing swelling, and restoring range of motion and mobility to the surgically renovated joint or tissue. The importance of physical therapy, vs. choosing to rehabilitate on your own, is to protect the healing tissues that were disrupted during surgery and make early progress toward goals set at a first visit through manual tissue mobilization, swelling control, and in some cases light activation exercises called isometrics which are safest to perform in early rehabilitation. A physical therapist can also provide guidance on activities to avoid, positions to rest in all with the goal to accelerate recovery safely.
After a period of time, which depends on the type and classification of surgery, a physical therapist will initiate a strength training program to restore the human body toward regular ease of functional daily activities such as walking, stairs, and performing daily tasks in the community like grocery shopping, cleaning, or yardwork safely. A physical therapist works as a guide to allow a slow reintegration of these types of activities, while protecting the healing tissue by avoiding substantial early stress to the joint or tissue.
Strength training becomes a substantial part of the later recovery as patients look to resume whichever activities they were limited with prior to surgery, something as simple as inability to walk or perform stairs to something a bit more complex like tennis, pickleball, golf or other leisure sporting activities. Strength training after surgery is a more controlled, slower progression of resistance and exercise programming to rebuild the injured area to tolerate the stressors of sport or daily activities over a period of time.
Surgery and recovery from surgery can be stressful, the anxiety of disrupting the healing process as you continue to live your life, as parents, as contributing citizens to the workforce or as high school, collegiate, or leisure athletes is a very real part of recovery and a physical therapist helps to both mentally and physically guide the process toward full recovery. Some surgery requires longer periods of time to recover from then others, and everyone recovers at their own pace; physical therapists communicate with patients to progress toward a good outcome and a quick safe return to pre-injury levels and activities.