What is Hand Therapy?
Hand Therapy is the practice of evaluating and treating problems of the upper extremity (elbow, wrist, and hand). The occupational and physical therapists at SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy will guide, coach, and educate you through the process of healing from your elbow, wrist, or hand injury. SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy provides treatment techniques to reduce pain, improve motion, restore strength, and increase function.
Hand Therapy at SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy
By placing a specialized blood flow restriction training pressure cuff (similar to a blood pressure cuff) on your upper arm or upper leg, your physical therapist can closely monitor your restricted blood flow. This process temporarily limits the amount of low-oxygen blood from entering and leaving those targeted muscles. The use of blood flow restriction training in tandem with light load weight lifting, sends those muscles into a state of hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is the body’s natural process to build muscle strength and mass but is usually only attainable from heavy/high intensity strength training.
Conditions Treated with Hand Therapy
SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy treat a wide variety of injuries and issues that affect the elbow, wrist, and hand. These concerns may be related to acute/traumatic accidents, be caused by repetitive use, wear and tear, or other health conditions. Our hand therapists regularly treat patients for these elbow, wrist, and hand concerns:
Benefits of Hand Therapy
Treating your elbow, wrist or hand injury at SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy is beneficial, because you are receiving care from therapists who work exclusively with your injury or condition. SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy offers:
What to Expect in Hand Therapy
SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy sees each patient as an individual with unique needs. Listening to your areas of concern, your hand therapist will also discuss your goals, activity level, and general health. At your first appointment, they will perform a professional evaluation and create a customized treatment plan to best meet your needs. Your rehabilitation at SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy will include:
Hand Therapy isn’t just for hands!
SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy treats wrists and elbows too!
Hand Therapy is offered here:
Hand therapists are specialists in rehabilitation of the elbow, wrist, and hand. Hand therapists have the unique ability to restore the functional use of your elbow, wrist, and hand by focusing first on calming your symptoms and then restoring movement of tissue before strengthening it. The hand is complex and can respond poorly to aggressive or painful treatment. Hand therapists are able to evaluate the needs you may have for a splint, which helps accomplish these healing goals too.
Hand Therapy often begins care with seeing a patient two times a week. The typical length of hand therapy is 6-8 weeks. Your first appointment will include a thorough, professional evaluation with a hand therapist who will develop and discuss your unique treatment plan. They will recommend the number of visits you will need and how often it is appropriate for you to come in. In some cases, your therapist may suggest adjusting your timeline as you show improvements in your recovery.
Often in hand therapy, you can continue working, at least in some capacity. If you need to have surgery for your injury then your time away from work will be longer. Your attending workers compensation provider is ultimately responsible for deciding the exact timing on when and at what capacity you can return to work.
The two important things to consider are what type of injury occurred and what sport you are wanting to return to. Racquet sports like tennis or pickleball might take 4 weeks of recovery before playing, where a higher impact sport like baseball or football would be around 6 weeks.
Here is a list of the insurance plans accepted by SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy. If you are unsure of your coverage or if your plan is accepted, please contact one of our offices. We are happy to assist you in learning about your benefits.
SportsCare & Armworks Physical and Hand Therapy have convenient locations in Gresham, NE Portland, Clackamas, Beaverton, Tigard, and Sandy. Location specific contact information can be found here: View Locations