What is Real-Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could see how your muscles were contracting as you were doing exercises?
You can! The technique is called Real Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy.
Using a diagnostic ultrasound, we can watch your different layers of muscles contract, relax and most importantly look at their muscle contraction timing, size and even how much fatty tissue is contained within your withered old muscles. Yes, it’s just like seeing an unborn baby.
What Conditions Benefit from Real Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy?
Common Ultrasound Physiotherapy Conditions
Ultrasound physiotherapy can be used for any muscle retraining. The most popular conditions that can be assisted by real-time ultrasound physiotherapy include:
- Lower Back Pain – Transversus Abdominus& Multifidus
- Sciatica
- SIJ Pain
- Pregnancy back pain
- Pelvic instability
- Gluteal tendinopathy
- Shoulder Pain – Rotator cuff
- Knee Pain – VMO activation
- Foot Exercises – Flat Feet
- Core Exercises
- Pelvic Floor
- Pilates
- Dry Needling
Core Exercises & Back Pain
Back pain researchers pioneered real-time ultrasound physiotherapy in the successful treatment of lower back pain. They found that the best way to activate the correct core stability muscles is to actually see them working on a real-time ultrasound scan as you perform the core exercises.
When we attempt to retrain your deep core stability muscle such as Transverses Abdominis or Multifidus being able to feel the muscle working is very important. Unfortunately, since the Transversus Abdominis
muscle is located deep in your abdomen and beneath two outer muscles, it can be quite hard to feel whether it is switching on or not. And, it’s almost impossible to detect whether the outer two muscles are working rather than the correct muscle.
This is where the real-time ultrasound scanner comes into its own. The technique of ultrasound retraining, carried out with the guidance of a specially trained ultrasound physiotherapist, enables you to quickly learn how to correctly contract your transversus abdominis, multifidus and other core muscles.
The ultrasound scanner provides you and your physiotherapist with a video picture of your muscles working. This enables you to precisely match up what you think you feel with what is actually happening beneath your skin at that very moment. This makes it much easier for you to correctly do your deep core stability exercises at home, which will quicken the solution to your pain.
What’s the Normal Co-contraction that Alleviates Low Back Pain?
Figure. Cross-section of abdomen
Related Treatment Options
- Early Injury Treatment
- Core Exercises
- Scapular Stabilisation Exercises
- Active Foot Posture Correction Exercises
- Gait Analysis
- Biomechanical Analysis
- Balance Enhancement Exercises
- Proprioception & Balance Exercises
- Agility & Sport-Specific Exercises
- Medications?
- Real-Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy
- Soft Tissue Massage
- Electrotherapy & Local Modalities
- Heat Packs
- Joint Mobilisation Techniques
- Kinesiology Tape
- Neurodynamics
- Physiotherapy Instrument Mobilisation (PIM)
- Rehabilitation
- Running Analysis
- Strength Exercises
- Stretching Exercises
- Supportive Taping & Strapping
- TENS Machine
- Video Analysis
