Ultrasound Treatment at Home?

Swelling? inflammation?

Hire a home use Ultrasound unit - £42 per week.

Ultrasound has traditionally been used in a 'clinical' setting by Physiotherapists (and other health professionals) to speed up the rate of healing and improve the long term quality of tissue repair.

Up until recently it has only been practical to use in a clinic, this has mainly been due to the fact clinical ultrasound units are expensive to purchase, bulky and have required specialist knowledge use.

However, recently an Australian based company have manufactured a small 'home use' ultrasound device, that has been designed to be used by the 'general public'.

*** The picture above shows on the right my clinic based ultrasound unit (pretty large!), with the home use ultrasound device on the left. The home based device has all of the electrics built into the head***

I often use ultrasound within my treatments, however the greatest benefits of using ultrasound can found in using it on a regular basis (up to twice a day). Obviously having daily ultrasound treatments are not practical unless you are a professional footballer (or athlete) with access to professional care.

The good news is that I've now purchased two 'home use' ultrasound devices. These units can be used to speed up the treatment of injuries or complaints including:

• Sprains / strains (with swelling present)
• Muscle spasms
• Tennis and golfers elbow
• Knee and ankle problems
• Back pain
• Heel spurs and achilles problems
• Joint pain
• Tendonitis
• Shin pain
• As well as a number of sports related injuires

If you have just sustained an injury or have a chronic complaint please do email me to ask if Ultrasound therapy can help you.

Knee Pain? Grinding, clicking or clunking

Increasingly more and more people have been coming to see me at the clinic with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (or pain at the front of the knee).

The pain is often associated with grinding, clicking and clunking in the knee which is made worse by squating type movements and walking up/downstairs.

This grinding, clicking and clunking is NOT normal and will most likely indicate that your patella (or knee cap) is tracking poorly. If your patella is not tracking correctly at the front of the knee then it will 'rub' against the edge of the femur, which will in turn cause it to grind, click or clunk.

Alongside the grinding, clicking and clunking some people also report a 'giving way' in the knee or a general feeling of being unstable.

Again this is NOT normal.

The good news is that with the correct treatment this pain (as well as the associated grinding, click and clunking) can normally be resolved successful with out the need for any surgical intervention.

The cause of this 'poor tracking' in the knee is often due to muscle imbalances in the thigh muscles (quadriceps) and weakness in the hip muscles.

With the correct exercises and treatment most often these imbalances can be addressed.

For a more detailed explanation of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome click here.

Additionally if you have any questions you would like answered about you own knee pain please do email me.

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Treatments that I use to resolve Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, may include some / all of the following:

1. Mobilisations to the patella to 'free up' tight structures.
2. Massage to the IT-Band, to help address the muscle imbalances.
3. Home exercises specifically designed to even out the muscle imbalances.
4. Ultrasound to help improve the inflammatory process.
5. Taping to help re-position the knee cap.
6. Referral to a podiatrist if your imbalances are associated with poor bio-mechanics at your feet.