How to Recover Faster From an Orthopaedic Surgery?

How to Recover Faster From an Orthopaedic Surgery
By Derick Ng

Advancement in Orthopaedic surgery over the years has led to a lower risk of infection and a faster recovery process. Although Orthopaedic surgery brings a lot of pain to the patient, there are many pain relief medications that can be consumed to counter it. Recovery is a long and slow process that requires a lot of patience from the patient. It cannot be expedited or long term complications may occur. However, there are some things you can do to help recover faster. Let's look at some of them.

Begin physical therapy before the surgery

Contrary to what many people believe, recovery actually begins months before the surgery! About 6 months before the surgery, you should start going to the gym to build up muscles around your body. For example, if you will be undergoing knee surgery, you should build up muscles around it such as your Quadriceps muscles, calf muscles and thigh muscles. By strengthening muscles around the injured region, you are helping your knee to be able to depend on the surrounding muscles to support it. Coupled with physical therapy after surgery, the recovery time will be significantly reduced.

Start physical therapy immediately after surgery

Physical therapy starts immediately after surgery, gradually increasing the intensity as days passes. Gentle rotations around the injured region should be conducted and it will be pain-free due to the anaesthesia. These will also help to reduce scarring and stiffness of the injured part. As days slowly pass, you should increase your physical therapy session duration as well as the intensity.

Opt for minimally invasive surgery

Whenever possible, always try to opt for a minimally invasive surgery or arthroscopy. Instead of cutting open the surgical site, arthroscopy makes a few small incisions to allow cameras and surgical tools to be inserted into your body. With a small incision, it reduces chances of infection as well as significantly decreasing the recovery time. It also ensures that the pain will be much less as compared to traditional open surgery. However, arthroscopy will cost more than traditional surgery.

Consume nutritious foods

Proper nutrition after surgery will help to speed up the healing process. You should consume lots of protein since protein is the building block for the body. Foods that are rich in protein include chicken, fish and red meat. You should also consume sufficient greens. Spinach, broccoli, cabbage and asparagus are good sources of nutrients for the body.

Orthopaedic surgery often requires lengthy recovery periods that requires a lot of patience, dedication and perseverance from the patient. Do not rush through the physical therapy as it may do more harm than good.

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