Hand Therapy (and upper limb physio)
Getting you holding, pushing, pulling, grabbing, throwing, catching and using your hands in every fashion you need – deliverd at your doorstep by the best.
Hand physioTherapy ON THE NORTHERN BEACHES
The shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, and digits can be injured through a variety of accidents at home, work, the gym, and playing sports, and management of these injuries can be a bit particular, finicky, or complicated. Hand and Upper Limb therapy is a subsect of physiotherapy that requires ongoing education to best understand the anatomy and mechanics of the hand, how to assess and diagnose, and properly and confidently treat – whether you need to get back to work, household and day-to-day activities, or sport.
Fixio is home to Mason Neal, a APA Titled Sports Physiotherapist and Practitioner of Hand Therapy. Mace takes on the wicked, wonderful, and colourful shoulder-to-hand injuries no matter if they are fresh, have been there longer than you care to admit, or if it has been treated unsuccessfully elsewhere, using a variety of treatment strategies and exercise progressions to get you back doing what you do best, even if there has been surgery.
If you want more from your hands, seeing a practitioner who has expertise in both hands and upper limb sporting injuries is your ticket to exceptional rehab.
In addition to the management of injuries, Mace can assist in developing exercise or conditioning programmes for athletes and ordinary humans alike to assist with identified issues or shortcomings in the rest of the upper limb, be it strength, mobility or endurance.
THE most trusted NORTHERN BEACHES Hand physios
What is hand and upper limb therapy?
Every physiotherapist worth their weight should be able to assess and treat a shoulder, however not all shoulders and not all physios are created equal – and the further you go down the arm, the less physiotherapists are taught and exposed to in regular practice. Hand and Upper Limb Therapy involves treating injuries to the bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, tendons, nerves, and in some cases the arteries and veins in the upper limb.
In the case of fractures anywhere from the collarbone to the tip of your finger, fabrication of fibreglass casts or fitting of slings to best immobilise the area and let the bones heal can be done on-site, as well as design and fabrication of splints for elbow, wrist, hand, and finger injuries – including static, progressive / constant tension, and dynamic splints depending on the injury and the need.
Common hand and upper limb physio conditions
- Shoulder injuries including training or sport-related pains
- Nerve injuries to the arm or tingling coming from the neck and shoulder
- Shoulder dislocations
- Shoulder osteoarthritis and after shoulder replacement
- Fractured collarbones, shoulder blades, and upper arm bones
- Rotator cuff injuries including surgeries
- Labrum injuries and sensations of shoulder instability
- Ruptured pectorals, biceps, triceps, and lats
- Muscle strains through the arm, including the shoulder, cuff, pecs, biceps, triceps, and forearm muscles
- Tennis and Golfer’s elbows
- Nerve injuries to the elbow and wrist, including Cubital Tunnel and Carpal Tunnel, Wartenberg, and Radial Nerve injuries
- Osteoarthritis of the wrist and digits
- DeQuervain’s Tenosynovitis and Intersection Syndrome
- Pinky-sided wrist pain, including TFCC, ulnar styloid, and radioulnar injuries
- Dropsy and sensations of instability in the wrist
- Broken bones in the wrist, hand, and fingers
- Mallet and Jersey fingers and thumbs
- Finger pulley injuries
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what does hand treatment look like?
Not every condition needs to go down the road of being immobilised though – while splints can be useful when things are acute or super sore to let things calm down, sessions can also include:
- Soft tissue and dry needling when indicated, to assist with muscular tenderness, perceived over-exertion and tightness, and reduce pain attributed to loading
- Manual techniques to the joints and tendons to assist with reducing pain and re-introducing load
- Taping to assist with perceived control and comfort, reducing the effort required on muscles or joints with activity
- Wound management for open injuries and after surgery, removing and replacing dressings as injuries heals and the needs of the healing tissue changes
- Progressive exercise therapy depending on the need of the injury, including:
- Restoring movement to the stiff joint or finger
- Increasing pliability and flexibility of muscles and joints
- Increasing strength of the big and small muscles in the arm and hand
- Improving dexterity, fine motor skills, and grasping / grabbing after hand or finger injury
- Improving co-ordination and handwriting after TBI (brain injury) and hand injury
- Returning to sports requiring all sorts of arm and hand use, including throwing, catching, carrying, lifting, grappling, climbing, punching, and everything else you can think of
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Diagnosing an ACL tear is easy for an experienced knee physiotherapist. There are a few clinical tests that give a very good indication. The gold standard that surgeons use is an MRI of the knee which will clearly outline the ACL injury if there is one. Fixio can assist you in organising an MRI for your knee if required.
The ACL is one of the key stabilising ligaments within the knee. There are 2 “cruciate” ligaments within your knee. They cross each other to form an X, with the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in front and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in back. The cruciate ligaments control the front and back motion of your knee.
The anterior cruciate ligament runs diagonally in the middle of the knee. It prevents the shin bone (tibia) from sliding out in front of the thigh bone (femur) and provides rotational stability to the knee.
Not only do we know them, we regularly sit in on their surgeries to ensure we are up to date with the latest ACL reconstruction techniques. We can offer you a few options, depending on your wants and needs.
The AFL, NRL and Super Rugby codes all have outlined that 12 months is the earliest that they will return a player to high level sport after an ACL tear and repair.
Previously we were returning players to sport at 9 months after the injury. However the re-injury rate on those players was much higher than players who did a more thorough program over 12 months.