Physical Therapy

Accurate Diagnosis is Critical to Physical Therapy Success

The majority of physical therapists are dedicated to their profession, with a genuine desire to help their patients, but there exists a gap between patient diagnosis and effective treatment. Many patients are referred by medical doctors who have pre-diagnosed their condition, and the therapist operates on the assumption that the diagnosis is comprehensive and accurate. Yet doctors often overlook critical factors that need to be addressed before physical therapy begins.

Conventional physical therapy can be futile and lead to chronicity when a complete and accurate diagnosis is not established. In many cases, the root cause is not biomechanical in nature, and physical therapy may be useless. Unless the therapist can visualize the interplay between various tissues and structures, therapy becomes a guessing game at best.

Moreover, many therapists have a limited or biased repertoire of methodologies, and they often try to fit the patient to the treatment instead of matching the best treatment to the patient. When a proper diagnosis has not been established, or the diagnosis is symptoms-based, the interaction between structure and function is overlooked, with no strategic planning for the most effective treatment protocol.

In some cases, patients suffer through months of painful and ineffective physical therapy when their complaint could have been completely healed in a single session with an orthobiologic procedure like PRP or nerve hydrodissection. Without advanced technologies and ultrasound imaging, physical therapy can do more harm than good, prolonging the patient’s pain and costing them money.

At NYDNRehab, our integrative approach and precise diagnosis gets to the root cause of your condition. We consider the complex interplay of structures throughout the entire body, and our personalized treatment plans are based on what will most effectively resolve the patient’s condition in the least amount of time.

High Resolution Ultrasonography Supports Patient Recovery

Musculoskeletal injuries and pain syndromes typically involve multiple tissue types, and each type has unique treatment requirements. Without clear imaging it is impossible to precisely target and treat diverse tissue types, or to guide regenerative procedures, especially when deep tissues are involved.

High resolution ultrasonography provides a safe and effective imaging solution that supports precise diagnosis and effective treatment. Thanks to ultrasound imaging, we frequently find tendon tears, fascial adhesions, entrapped nerves and other issues that were overlooked by other physical therapy clinics.

For example, one patient with chronic foot pain had received extensive physical therapy at another clinic that made his condition worse. Thanks to Dr. Kalika’s expertise in diagnostic ultrasound, we found a small but painful rupture in the plantar fascia that had gone unnoticed. Click here to read how we helped this patient fully recover from his chronic foot pain.

Ultrasound is also useful as a feedback tool for correcting posture and restoring disrupted muscle coordination patterns. As the patient visualizes the muscles and bony structures in motion, the brain processes that information to reactivate dormant neuromuscular pathways that govern efficient biomechanics.

Our top-tier ultrasound equipment also has capabilities for sonoelastography to test for soft tissue density and elasticity, and superb microvascular imaging to confirm early signs of healing. This valuable information helps us steer the course of your physical therapy protocol and monitor its effectiveness.

Without clear imaging, it is impossible to arrive at a complete and accurate diagnosis, or to develop an effective treatment plan. Physical therapy based on symptoms alone, without imaging or tissue pre-treatment, is bound to fall short of its goals, because it does not take into account all relevant factors.