People who would rather avoid a joint replacement offer seek out clinics like ours to help manage their symptoms. Your osteopath may be able to help depending on your goals. Waiting lists for joint replacements are exceptionally long at the moment, so it may just be that you’re looking for some symptomatic relief before your turn arrives. If so, we may be able to take it a step further and help to prepare the area for a smoother recovery. Ideally, we would see you early enough that your joint can respond to treatment, holding off the urgency for a joint replacement or even resolving the need for one at all.
Preventing Joint Replacements
The need for many joint replacements is osteoarthritis. This is a condition that often begins insidiously, and can cause a handful of changes to posture and function before it becomes symptomatic. People often think that arthritis is the end of the road, and will inevitably require surgery of some sort. In fact, when identified early, proper movement can be enough to pump nutrients back into the damaged cartilage and encourage it to heal again.
So from that perspective, early intervention from your osteopath could reduce the need for a joint replacement in the first place. It’s never too early to see us if you do think you might be suffering from the very early stages of OA.
Symptomatic Relief and Prehab (Before Surgery)
If your joint is damaged enough that surgery is inevitable, we can still support you while you wait. The body tries to protect itself when joints are painful or otherwise compromised, but this can cause discomfort in itself. One of the main protective mechanisms is muscle tension. If the joint behind the knee cap is affected, the quadriceps might tense up to try and limit movement and prevent further damage. Unfortunately, tension in the quads puts more direct pressure on the back of the knee cap, likely making pain and joint health worse. Of course, tension in the face of osteoarthritis is the opposite of what we want anyway- movement is key.
Just like rehabilitation after surgery, you may benefit from “prehabilitation” before. This might take the form of work to reduce any compensatory patterns that have developed during your symptomatic period. If that compensation can be reduced before the surgery, it’s one less thing to unpick afterwards when you’ve already got a lot on your plate.
Rehabilitation after Joint Replacement Surgery
The hospital should provide you with a rehab strategy, but you can always supplement this with osteopathy or continue with us once your treatment plan finishes.
Osteopaths look at the person as a whole, so beyond the replacement site itself, we can also look for any more global changes. These might include adaptations the body made pre-surgery that are now no longer useful, or guarding patterns post-op. We also have the luxury of time, so we can really get to the bottom of any nuances that might be causing you problems.
