PHYSIOTHERAPY: ITS PRESCRIPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR ORTHOPAEDIC OUT-PATIENTS
- 1 February 1978
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Rheumatology
- Vol. 17 (1) , 14-22
- https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/17.1.14
Abstract
During a three-month period, 1462 (29%) of the new out-patients seen by 18 orthopaedic surgeons were prescribed physiotherapy. The rates of referral among the surgeons ranged widely, from 15% to 56%, and the differing characteristics of the patients did not account for these variations. For specific conditions examined, physiotherapy appeared to be one of a range of possible therapies. The majority of prescriptions gave clinical details and specified the type of treatment, but its duration was specified in less than half; the frequency and aims of treatment were hardly ever given. Nearly 90 % of the patients completed their course. Fourteen different types of treatment were applied, but only four of these—heat, exercises, electrical stimulation, and traction—were applied to more than 3% of the patients. Physiotherapists nearly always carried out the treatments prescribed and augmented them in nearly a quarter of cases, usually with heat and/or exercises.Keywords
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