Post Knee Replacement Surgery Involves Use of the LegTutor

 

Vikki Petersen writing in Health Now October 2011 states that baby boomers are getting older. With increased age comes increased wear and tear  on all the joints of the body,. This together with the desire to remain active has resulted in more and more surgeons and patients opting for knee replacements (Total Knee replacemtn) TKR. Patients are told by their surgeons how the surgery will decrease pain levels and ensure that they return to their active lifestyle. However they are not always told how important physical therapy and rehabilitation will be so that they regain their full range of motion and strength and flexibility of the replaced knee. Vikki Petersen says that she as a physiotherapist  often has to outline to the patient at the first post surgery appointment the treatment schedule that it will take in order to restore their functional ability.

If post knee surgery rehabilitation involves the LegTutor™ the speed of rehabilitation may increase many fold.

The  LegTutor™ system has been developed to allow for functional rehabilitation of the lower extremity including the hip and knee. The system consists of an ergonomic wearable leg brace and dedicated rehabilitation software. The LegTutor™ rehabilitation concept is based on performing controlled exercise rehabilitation practice at a patient customized level with real time accurate feedback on the patient’s performance.  This allows the physical therapist to set the exercise practice, performed through customized rehabilitation games, to the patients movement ability. Patients post knee surgery must do isolated repetitive knee flexion and extension exercises both in the lying sitting and standing position to strengthen their knee. Having the exercises in the form of a customized rehabilitation game will motivate the patient to perform repetitive movement practice which is the mainstay of a physical therapist’s manual exercise technique. In addition, the LegTutor™ system allows for a range of biomechanical evaluations including speed, passive and active range of motion and motion analysis of the lower extremity, these evaluation allow the physical therapist to report on the patients movement performance and show the patient the improvements that they are making.

The LegTutor™ is also used for other orthopedic and trauma rehabilitation including total hip surgery as it offers the possibility to do repetitive isolated and combined hip movement practice. Patients with neurological lower limb movement impairments including stroke, CP and spinal and brain injury patients also benefit from the use of the LegTutor.  The LegTutor along with its sister products the ArmTutor, HandTutor and 3DTutor allow for controlled exercise of single and  multi joints within the normal movement pattern and this prevents the development of undesired and compensatory joint movement and ensures better performance of functional tasks.

The LegTutor™ and the  ArmTutor, HandTutor and 3DTutor – Tutor system is used by many leading rehabilitation centers worldwide and has full FDA and CE certification.

LegTutor, 3DTutor improves patient’s functional balance ability

Image by deckhand via Flickr

In the August 2011 edition of  Phys Ther Dr. Szturm and his team from Department of Physical Therapy, School of Medical Rehabilitation, University of Manitoba Canada compared traditional physical therapy balance exercises with  dynamic balance exercises coupled with video feedback from game play. The study was conducted on a group of 30 community home dwelling and ambulatory older adults in a geriatric day hospital centre. Dr. Szturm’s group found that there was greater improvement in dynamic standing balance control in the video game playing group compared with the improvement seen in the typical exercise program.

The LegTutor and 3DTutor are wearable motion sensor devices that use dedicated rehabilitation software. This allows patients to perform active intensive lower extremity hip, knee, ankle and balance exercises customized to their movement ability in a motivating environment.  Physical therapists in major rehabilitation centers worldwide have been using the LegTutor and 3DTutor as a tool for improving the patients functional balance ability in addition to improving the patients movement ability.