Case Studies and Testimonials for Physiotherapy and Treatment at Central Health
Neck and shoulder pain resolved with physiotherapy
A 27-year-old woman reported a two-year history of pain around her right shoulder blade after falling out of a headstand in yoga. She had tried chiropractic treatment, acupuncture and herbal remedies but these had not helped. She was still getting pain with use of her arm, could not weight bare through it and hadn’t been able to participate fully in yoga since.
On assessment her pain was reproducible by stressing the joints in her lower neck and she had poor control of the stability muscles around her neck and shoulder.
It seems that she had strained her neck. Either this had caused inhibition of the muscles around her neck and shoulder, which was perpetuating the problem, or she had poor muscle control and hypermobile joints already, which predisposed her to the injury.
We looked at restoring controlled movement to the joints in her neck and embarked on a specific regime of exercises to re-train the muscle control in her neck and shoulder blade. As she improved we progressed these stability exercises into more demanding positions and specifically into weight- baring yoga positions.
Over a period of a few months her pain had completely resolved and she was back to fully participating in yoga.
Back and leg pain resolved with epidural and physiotherapy
A 32 year old man hurt his back doing sit ups. He had back pain referring into his right leg. Initially he was treated by his GP with anti- inflammatory medication, which only helped temporarily.
He was seen by a spinal surgeon who ordered an MRI scan which showed some minor wear and tear in the discs and joints in his lower back and also a small disc bulge, which was irritating a nerve. Surgery was not indicated in this case but he had an epidural injection to help reduce the pain.
Following this he was referred to physiotherapy. His leg pain had resolved but he was still getting some back pain with certain movements and positions.
Over time he had developed different movement strategies to avoid the pain and although he now had reduced pain, these altered movement strategies had persisted. This was causing him to move and load the joints in his back differently and was causing pain for a different reason.
Physiotherapy sessions worked on restoring normal movement patterns and normal muscle function in his lower back. This provided controlled movement of the joints and reduced the amount of load going through the discs. Quickly he was moving normally without pain.