Pre-surgical (or prehabilitation) is the stage before you have surgery. The goal of pre-operative physiotherapy, is to ensure you can be as well conditioned as possible prior to your procedure and enhance your post-operative recovery.
What is pre-operative care?
Prehabilitation is the process of maximising functional capability prior to surgery. The premise is that following surgery, due to trauma and necessary rest periods, the muscles weaken and corresponding structures tighten up. By maximising muscle strength and joint mobility prior to surgery, this can improve your path to recovery and speed up recovery time.
How can physiotherapy assist pre-operation?
A Physiotherapist can assess limitation, identify any weakness’s and loss of joint range of motion. Your Physio can assist by prescribing appropriate strengthening exercises, stretches and where appropriate, they can mobilise the structures to achieve necessary gains.
Does my specialist need to recommend prehabilitation prior to treatment?
Some specialists are more pro-active than others with regards to prehabilitation. Some will directly refer you to a physiotherapist before surgery while others may neglect to refer even post-surgery. It is not necessary for a specialist referral to attend your physio but it would be recommended to discuss this with your specialist or GP prior to attending to ensure good interdisciplanary communication. Physiotherapy before surgery may provide significant benefits for improving your outcomes and can, in some cases, may even prevent the need for surgery.