Manual Therapy

Manual therapy techniques are provided through skilled hand movements used to improve tissue extensibility, increase range of motion, induce relaxation, mobilize or manipulate soft tissue and joints modulate pain and reduce soft tissue swelling.

Goals:
Stress the connective tissue along their normal lines of stress. Minimize effects of the formation of contractions due to decrease joint motion secondary to osteoarthritis. Enhance synovial movement for cartilage nutrition and diffusion of materials in the joint. DECREASE pain!

Range of motion and stretching, active and passive:
Increase flexibility, prevent adhesions, remodel periarticular fibrosis, and improve muscle and other soft tissue extensibility. Local edema and joint effusion may limit joint motion mechanically.

Massage:
Gentle manipulation of superficial and deep tissues. Prevent adhesions of muscles, tendons and ligaments. Improves soft tissue relaxation, muscle flexibility venous and lymphatic flow, local blood flow.

Joint mobilizations:
Forces applied in an oscillatory manner, not sustained. Grade 1 and 2 mobilizations are used for pain management. Grade 3 and 4 breaks up scar tissue to allow better range of motion.