Hacking into your own rehab

This is a first for Rayner & Smale, which I hope paves the way for future discussions about optimising patient recovery, and involves a open dialogue between myself and my client Sophie. The idea stems from my continual drive to ensure that patient's feel engaged in their own rehabilitation and empowered to drive their own journey. But more than that, they need to know how and they need to want to do it.

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Finding your stride

I've always considered gait to be important, but even more so now, I feel that gait is one of the most important parts of my assessment. It is really important to build rehabilitation programs from the ground up and that means starting with gait observation.These are some of the questions that I go through with my patients while breaking down their gait pattern. I try to use as many external cues as possible and not talk about specific muscles because the ultimate goal is not to think while walking.

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Anatomy 101: Ankle Syndesmosis - Distal Tibiofibular Joint

This rugby season, I have treated nine players who sustained ankle syndesmosis injuries. To familiarise myself with the anatomy, I pulled out my trusty Moore Anatomy textbook, however found the information available very limited. The goal of this blog is to detail the anatomy and function of the ankle syndesmosis, to allow more effective and efficient treatment of this region.

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The continuum from preventative to rehabilitative care

Reflecting on a weekend of teaching I noticed a common theme as I transitioned from participating at the UCSF sports medicine conference to teaching an advanced track seminar at the NATA annual conference. This theme is something I've been brought back to over and over again, the continuum and transition between preventative and rehabilitative care. 

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Sensation Testing - Peripheral Nerve Lesion

When suspecting a central nervous system lesion it is important to assess different facets of sensory integration. For example, light touch, two-point discrimination, temperature discrimination, sharp/blunt, kinaesthesia, proprioception, and stereognosis. When suspecting a peripheral nerve lesion however, it is more important to understand the difference between dermatomal and cutaneous nerve distributions. The purpose of this blog is to review aspects of sensory testing for a peripheral nerve lesion and differentiation from central nervous system lesions.

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