Services

SportsCare Physical Therapy provides orthopedic rehabilitation and sports medicine services.

Orthopedic Rehabilitation

Over-all Treatment Philosophy: At SportsCare Physical Therapy, we strongly employ evidence-based practice in the development of our patient care plans. Evidenced-based practice (EBP) is the "conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients." (Sackett DL, Haynes RB, Guyatt GH, Tugwell P. Clinical Epidemiology: A Basic Science for Clinical Medicine. 2nd ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991). Basically, this means that we spend a significant amount of time reviewing current clinical medical research, and then apply this knowledge in the development of our patient specific plans of care.

Manual Therapy: Generally speaking, most research strongly shows the best patient outcomes are produced with the use of manual therapy, coupled with specific exercise prescription, when rehabilitating most orthopedic injuries. Manual therapy is defined as the skilled passive movement of joints (joint mobilization/manipulation) and soft tissues (soft tissue mobilization/specific localized massage). While some physical therapists have basic knowledge in this area, Dr. Jeff Lewandowski DPT and Dr. Alison Smith DPT are certified specialists in manual therapy.

Dry Needling: Additionally, Dr. Lewandowski is certified in dry needling. Dry needling can be a very effective medical treatment which uses very thin needles without medication (a dry needle) to achieve its function. This technique involves placing a thin and flexible monofilament (solid) needle into a muscle or muscles to release shortened bands of muscle, know as trigger points. This can help to resolve pain and muscle tension, which will promote healing, flexibility and strength. Dry needling will also increase blood flow to injured tissue and help to remodel painful scar tissue. Dry needling is not a miracle cure; it is important to view dry needling as one aspect of your rehabilitation plan of care. It is vital to perform the other aspects of physical therapy along with the dry needling. This may include tissue mobilization, stretching, strengthening and functional conditioning. This is not the same as acupuncture, an aspect of traditional Chinese medicine, which is based on the metaphysical theory of normalizing energy flow in the body. Dry needling is a western medical technique that is based on scientific studies and knowledge.

Therapeutic Exercise: When developing a dosed exercise prescription, our physical therapists choose specific exercises designed to target the injured tissues (bone, muscle, ligament, tendon, cartilage, fibrotic scar tissue and/or nerves). We develop a patient-specific exercise program that gradually increases in intensity to progressively stimulate the injured tissues, creating a healing response. Recent evidence also shows the importance of a comprehensive home program within the patient plan of care.

Starting with the first visit, all patients are started on a progressive home program that augments the physical therapy procedures that are performed in our office. Additionally, recent research has pointed to the relatively high rate of recurrence of many orthopedic problems, as well as the positive effect that exercise has on significantly reducing the risk of re-injury (especially regarding spine pain, knee cap problems, rotator cuff problems, tendonitis, and ankle sprains). Therefore, our patients are released to a home and gym program designed to reduce their risk of recurrence. We use traditional passive modalities (ultrasound, mechanical traction, electrical stimulation, heat, ice, etc.) as needed to complement the approach outlined above.

Facility: Our state-of-the-art facility allows us to develop and implement a comprehensive orthopedic rehabilitation program. Our clinic has several exercise machines to assist in specific exercise prescription. These include Body Master and Lojer pulley isotonic strengthening equipment. The Lojer devices are a specialized Scandinavian pulley system (known as Medical Exercise Training) that allows to increase the resistance to muscles in increments as low as 250 grams, which is helpful for strengthening injured and weak tissues. We also have the Impulse inertial exercise device. This innovative piece of equipment allows us to custom designed exercises that mimic the acceleration and deceleration phases of the actual activity to which our patients are trying to return.

The Impulse helps in developing the body's neuromuscular capabilities as related to power, coordination, proprioception, joint stabilization, and fast reactive motor control. We are the only clinic in the area that has the Biodex System IV, which is a multi-mode computerized robotic dynamometer. This highly technical device, which is used for specific exercise, is in the athletic training rooms of 37 professional sports teams. The Biodex System IV is also used for testing neuromuscular strength. The data is produces is so consistent, accurate, objective that it is used in the best research laboratories worldwide.

SportsCare Physical Therapy also has several pieces of equipment that is used to re-develop the sense of balancing that is often loss in response to an injury. We have a full array of aerobic equipment. Additionally, we have all of the traditional passive physical therapy modalities such as ultrasound, phonophoresis, iontophoresis, electrical stimulation for pain control and muscle strengthening, mechanical traction, heat and ice.

We also can prescribe custom foot orthotics for lower extremity mal-alignment problems

Athletic Training Services

Certified athletic trainers are licensed healthcare professionals by the state of Georgia who specialize in the evaluation, treatment and prevention of sports injuries. A certified/licensed athletic trainer can also evaluate and treat most orthopedic injuries. The three physical therapists at SportsCare Physical Therapy are certified athletic trainers as well as physical therapists. Additionally, Dana Garrish ATC, and Diane King ATC are certified athletic trainers who is employed at our facility. The clinic is a state-of-the-art fully equipped orthopedic and sports medicine rehabilitation facility including isokinetics, inertial exercise, specialized isotonic rehabilitation machines, mechanical traction, and a full array of physical modalities.

SportsCare Physical Therapy has an active community out-reach sports medicine program. We provide athletic training for South Forsyth High School and Lambert High School. Our athletic trainers are present for the home games of the sports that are considered "contact sports" (football, basketball, wrestling, soccer and lacrosse). We also cover away varsity football games. Home games of other sports are covered based on our availability. We also help to provide sports physicals, once per year, at these schools. In addition to working with these schools, we also provide sports medicine coverage for local club teams, little league associations and tournaments.

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