Physiotherapy assistant

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the significant difficulties in access to health care services experienced by patients with physical disabilities. Method: A cross-sectional study at King Abdul Aziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 235 persons with physical disability, from 1 January to 30 June 2014. Results: A total of 88% of the people with disability reported having the need for someone to accompany them. Over 52% were unsatisfied with parking, 49.8% with the waiting area, 51.3% with wheel-chair services, and nearly 45% were unsatisfied with toilet facilities for the physically disabled...

BACKGROUND: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare disease that causes the progressive loss of motor abilities such as walking. Standard treatment includes physiotherapy. No trial has evaluated whether or not adding aquatic therapy (AT) to land-based therapy (LBT) exercises helps to keep muscles strong and children independent. OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility of recruiting boys with DMD to a randomised trial evaluating AT (primary objective) and to collect data from them; to assess how, and how well, the intervention and trial procedures work...

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to systematically investigate the effects of robot-assisted therapy on the upper extremity in acute and subacute stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] The papers retrieved were evaluated based on the following inclusion criteria: 1) design: randomized controlled trials; 2) population: stroke patients 3) intervention: robot-assisted therapy; and 4) year of publication: May 2012 to April 2016. Databased searched were: EMBASE, PubMed and COCHRAN databases. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies...

BACKGROUND: The performance of laboratory tests to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis is dependent on the quality of the sputum sample tested. The relative merits of sputum collection methods to improve tuberculosis diagnosis are poorly characterised. We therefore aimed to investigate the effects of sputum collection methods on tuberculosis diagnosis. METHODS: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate whether non-invasive sputum collection methods in people aged at least 12 years improve the diagnostic performance of laboratory testing for pulmonary tuberculosis...

Bronchiectasis is a chronic lung disease with permanent airway dilatation, mucus retention and recurrent lower respiratory tract infections. Bronchiectasis is increasing in prevalence and has a significant morbidity and an excess mortality rate over age matched controls. It is increasingly identified during investigations into chronic cough and is evident high resolution CT scanning. There remain significant knowledge gaps in our understanding of the epidemiology, pathophysiology, prognosis and optimal treatments in bronchiectasis...

BACKGROUND: Due to different physical and biological mechanisms behind ultrasound hyperthermia and phonophoresis, the requirement for ultrasound power, frequency and control modes varies. OBJECTIVE: This paper introduces an adaptive ultrasonic physiotherapy system based on real-time surveillance over physiological characteristics of the patients, which in turn assists the individual treatment and dose limitation in auxiliary rehabilitation. METHODS: The method essentially takes advantage of distinctive characteristics of two different phases (systole and diastole) of the human cardiac cycle as a medium for modulation...

In end-stage idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (iPAH), centrally cannulated Novalung (Novalung GmbH, Hechingen, Germany) pumpless extracorporeal lung assist (pECLA) decompresses the pulmonary artery for bridge to transplantation. We report placing a 45-year-old man with end-stage iPAH and right heart failure on centrally cannulated pECLA for 82 days as a bridge to heart and double-lung transplantation (HLTx). To our knowledge, this is the longest reported bridge to transplantation in Canada and the first successful bridge to HLTx...

BACKGROUND: Contrary to common belief of clinicians that hemorrhagic stroke survivors have better functional prognoses than ischemic, recent studies show that ischemic survivors could experience similar or even better functional improvements. However, the influence of stroke subtype on gait and posture outcomes following an intervention blending conventional physiotherapy with robotic-assisted gait therapy is missing. OBJECTIVE: This study compared gait and posture outcome measures between ambulatory hemorrhagic patients and ischemic patients, who received a similar 4 weeks' intervention blending a conventional bottom-up physiotherapy approach and an exoskeleton top-down robotic-assisted gait training (RAGT) approach with Lokomat...

BACKGROUND: To help patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) benefit from the positive health effects attained by exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR), adherence to these programmes according to international guidelines is important. Strategies to increase adherence to exercise-based CR are mainly an unexplored area. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of a behavioural medicine intervention in physiotherapy, containing goal-setting, self-monitoring and feedback, with the aim of improving rehabilitation outcomes for exercise-based CR, compared with usual care...

Objective Hospital emergency departments (ED) in Australia and internationally have been experiencing increased demand, resulting in reduced hospital quality, impaired access and adverse health outcomes. Effective evaluation of new ED service models and their effect on outcomes is reliant on baseline measures of the staffing configuration and organisational characteristics of the EDs being studied. The aim of the present study was to comprehensively measure these variables in Australian EDs.Methods Australian hospital EDs with 24-h medical and nursing cover were identified and invited to participate in the study...

Contemporary and future physiotherapists are, and will be, presented with challenges different to their forebears. Yet, physiotherapy tends to remain tied to historical ways of seeing the world: these are passed down to generations of physiotherapy graduates. These historical perspectives privilege particular knowledge and skills so that students gain competency for graduation. However, contemporary practice is inherently more complex than the focus on knowledge and skills would have us believe. Professional life requires students to develop the capability to deal with uncertain and diverse futures...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study determining whether or not Non-invasive Spinal Decompression Therapy (NSDT) was effective in resorption of herniation, increasing disc height in patients with lumbar disc herniation (LHNP). METHODS: A total of twenty patients diagnosed as LHNP and suffering from pain at least 8 weeks were enrolled to the study. Patients were allocated in study (SG) and control groups (CG) randomly. Both groups received combination of electrotherapy, deep friction massage and stabilization exercise for fifteen session...

BACKGROUND: Electromechanical- and robotic-assisted gait-training devices are used in rehabilitation and might help to improve walking after stroke. This is an update of a Cochrane Review first published in 2007. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of automated electromechanical- and robotic-assisted gait-training devices for improving walking after stroke. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (last searched 9 August 2016), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (the Cochrane Library 2016, Issue 8), MEDLINE in Ovid (1950 to 15 August 2016), Embase (1980 to 15 August 2016), CINAHL (1982 to 15 August 2016), AMED (1985 to 15 August 2016), Web of Science (1899 to 16 August 2016), SPORTDiscus (1949 to 15 September 2012), the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) (searched 16 August 2016), and the engineering databases COMPENDEX (1972 to 16 November 2012) and Inspec (1969 to 26 August 2016)...

BACKGROUND: Chest physiotherapy is widely prescribed to assist the clearance of airway secretions in people with cystic fibrosis. Oscillating devices generate intra- or extra-thoracic oscillations orally or external to the chest wall. Internally they create variable resistances within the airways, generating controlled oscillating positive pressure which mobilises mucus. Extra-thoracic oscillations are generated by forces outside the respiratory system, e.g. high frequency chest wall oscillation...

BACKGROUND: Robot-Assisted Gait Training (RAGT) is a widespread approach for locomotion rehabilitation but information about intervention frequency and duration is still lacking. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of frequency and duration of a RAGT on motor outcome of children affected by Cerebral Palsy (CP). METHODS: Forty-four CP children (age 4-17) underwent one among four different intensive trainings with equal dose of intervention, combining Task-Oriented Physiotherapy (TOP) and RAGT: 40 sessions (4 sessions/week) over 10 weeks of sole TOP (group1) or RAGT (group2) or RAGT and TOP (2 + 2 sessions/week; group3); 40 sessions in shorter period (4 weeks) of RAGT and TOP (5 + 5 sessions/week; group4)...

For the first six weeks following total knee arthroplasty (TKA), a patient will attend an outpatient clinic typically seen twice weekly. Here, an exercise regime is performed and improvement assessed using a hand held goniometer that measures the maximum angle of knee flexion, an important metric of progress. Additionally a series of daily exercises is performed at home, recorded in a diary. This protocol has problems. Patients must attend the hospital with assistance since they are not permitted to drive for six weeks following the procedure; appointments are sometimes missed; there are occasionally not enough physiotherapy appointment available; furthermore, it is difficult to be sure that patients are compliant with their exercises at home...

BACKGROUND: Falls are common and debilitating in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) and restrict participation in daily activities. Understanding circumstances of falls in the community and at home may assist clinicians to target therapy more effectively. OBJECTIVE: To compare the characteristics of community and home fallers and the circumstances that contribute to falls in people living with PD. METHODS: People with mild-moderately severe PD (n=196) used a daily falls diary and telephone hotline to report prospectively the occurrence, location and circumstances of falls over 14 months...

BACKGROUND: Children being treated for cancer are admitted to the hospital for treatment of their disease or complications of therapy. Periods of bed rest during hospitalization can cause impairments detrimental to children with cancer who endure many side effects of therapy. Little is known about how these children mobilize while admitted to the hospital. The purpose of this study was to examine how children admitted to a hematology/oncology ward are mobilizing and analyze factors associated with delayed or infrequent mobility...

BACKGROUND: Case-based learning (CBL) is an educational approach where students work in small, collaborative groups to solve problems. Computer assisted learning (CAL) is the implementation of computer technology in education. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a remote-online CBL (RO-CBL) with traditional face-to-face CBL on learning the outcomes of undergraduate physiotherapy students. METHODS: Participants were randomized to either the control (face-to-face CBL) or to the CAL intervention (RO-CBL)...

BACKGROUND: Inter-professional initiatives are prevalent in the healthcare landscape, requiring professionals to collaborate effectively to provide quality patient care. Little attention has been given to intra-professional relationships, where professionals within one disciplinary domain (such as degree and diploma nursing students) collaborate to provide care. New care models are being introduced where baccalaureate and diploma students of a particular discipline (such as nursing, occupational therapy, dentistry or physiotherapy) work closely together in teams to deliver care...