Maximizing Recovery After Elbow Surgery: The Role of Occupational Therapy
If you’ve undergone an elbow procedure, you may wonder how to regain strength, mobility, and function effectively. Recovery has its challenges, but occupational therapy after elbow surgery plays a crucial role in speeding up recovery and ensuring the best possible outcomes.
At Cascade Hand & Orthopedic Rehab, we exclusively offer occupational and hand therapy, which means our team of experts focuses solely on your upper extremities. We also pay special attention to helping restore your ability to perform daily tasks that involve your hands and arms, such as cooking or grooming.
The complicated nature of upper extremity surgery means rehabilitation can be a lengthy process–but our FL therapists are here to guide you every step of the way, ensuring you achieve the best possible results.
If you want to learn more about how occupational therapy can enhance your post-surgical recovery, call our clinic today.
What Are Some Typical Elbow Surgeries?
The good news is that elbow surgeries are usually outpatient procedures that won’t require a hospital stay. However, for the best results, you’ll still need a good rehabilitation program.
Here are some of the most common elbow surgical procedures:
Elbow Arthroscopy
- This minimally invasive procedure helps address various elbow conditions or injuries, including removing loose bone and cartilage that broke off during injury, an arthritis-related bone spur, or unhealthy tissue or tissue that blocks motion (adhesions).
Total Elbow Replacement
- If your elbow joint is severely damaged (such as from osteoarthritis or a major injury), then you might need a total elbow replacement, in which the surgeon replaces the damaged parts of the joint with a prosthesis.
Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) Reconstruction
- The UCL is a ligament that connects the upper arm and forearm bones at the elbow. If it’s severely damaged, you may require surgery to repair it. This surgery is sometimes called Tommy John surgery after the baseball player it was first performed on.
Fracture Repair
- Cases of severe bone fracture near the elbow joint sometimes require surgery to fully stabilize the bones and allow repair of the damage.
Cubital Tunnel Release
Cubital tunnel syndrome occurs when the ulnar nerve becomes entrapped in the cubital tunnel located in your elbow (it’s similar to carpal tunnel syndrome, which occurs in the wrist). A cubital tunnel release frees the entrapped nerve.
Occupational Therapy after Elbow Surgery: What To Expect
The goal of occupational therapy after elbow surgery is to manage pain, improve mobility and strength, and restore full functionality of your arm so you can return to your daily activities without pain or limitation.
We’ll start with a comprehensive assessment to help our therapists understand the nature of your surgery and your specific rehabilitation needs. Based on this evaluation, we’ll create a personalized treatment plan incorporating the most effective interventions to aid recovery.
In the early stages of your rehabilitation, we’ll focus on pain management and minimizing scar tissue, which helps prevent chronic pain and dysfunction. To accomplish this, we might employ manual therapy techniques, such as elbow mobilizations or soft tissue manipulation, which help reduce pain and boost blood flow to the area, thus facilitating healing.
You’ll also likely require a sling after surgery, which protects the elbow as it heals. We’ll ensure you’re using it correctly.
As you move along in your recovery, we’ll begin incorporating more robust exercises. We start with mobility work, showing you active stretches to help increase your range of motion. Next, we add strengthening exercises. As you improve, we increase the intensity so you’re always seeing results.
Finally, we’ll work with you to restore your ability to perform daily arm movements, including sports or work-specific movements. We’ll offer modifications as needed and can provide ergonomic advice on everyday activities, such as lifting, reaching, or grasping, to ensure you use your elbow correctly and safely.
Scheduled for Elbow Surgery? Make an Occupational Therapy Appointment!
The best time to start thinking about occupational therapy after elbow surgery is before you go in for your procedure! We’ll work closely with you, your surgeon, and other care team members to ensure you have a rehabilitation plan in place once you’re out of the hospital.
If you have elbow surgery on your schedule, request an appointment with Cascade Hand & Orthopedic Rehab today.