Rehabilitation is the act of strengthening your muscles, increasing range of motion (ROM), improving movement patterns and regaining full control of your body through specific exercises or therapy.  Most people have only heard of post-operative rehabilitation, in which a patient will work to regain total use of whatever body part after they have undergone surgery. A new type of therapy that has been making an impact in the manual therapy world is prehabilitation, or rehabilitation before someone undergoes surgery.

Also known as Prehab, this is the act of doing specific rehabilitation in order to enhance and amplify the functional capacity of your body prior to undergoing surgery. This use of prehabilitation has been shown to be “beneficial in deceasing the incidence of post operative complications” and improvements in post-operative outcomes (2). In addition, it has been shown to improve physical function in even the most severely compromised patients (1).

Although the concepts of prehabilitation are more focused on increasing physical fitness, I believe it has much more to offer. Prehabilitation is important because it starts the rehabilitation phase and primes the muscles for conditioning. Your body begins to start activating proper movement patterns and stabilization techniques that will be required post-operative. The sooner you can get these activated, the sooner you can advance the post-operative rehabilitation. Essentially, prehab starts to address the “why” of someone’s dysfunction, while the surgery will correct the “what” of their dysfunction.

Prehab can benefit more than just musculoskeletal conditions, such as joint replacements, spinal surgery, rotator cuff tears, etc. It has actually been starting to be used for cardiopulmonary conditions, abdominal surgeries, and also labor and delivery. A great example of this can be found in the form of pre-partum rehabilitation Dr. Kenzie specializes in through BIRTHFIT. This program is designed to get pregnant women moving better, increasing endurance, maximizing ROM and movement patterning through prehabilitation!

If you have questions on whether you think you could benefit from prehabilitation before a surgery, please give us a call at 262-236-9489 and talk to one of the doctors directly.

 

1. Physiother Can. 2013 Spring;65(2):116-24. doi: 10.3138/ptc.2011-60. Prehabilitation improves physical function of individuals with severe disability from hip or knee osteoarthritis. Desmeules F1, Hall J2, Woodhouse LJ3.

2. Surgery. 2016 Nov;160(5):1189-1201. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2016.05.014. Epub 2016 Jul 8.The ability of prehabilitation to influence postoperative outcome after intra-abdominal operation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Moran J1

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