Upper Limb Rehabilitation Perth
Expert Neuro Physio Care
Often feared by physiotherapists- the upper limb can be challenging to rehabilitate after neurological damage.
Why? Upper limb recovery after neurological injury often needs more time, higher intensity, and specialist expertise.
At Cortex Neuro Rehab, upper limb rehabilitation is a core specialty. We treat all severities and conditions, with programs delivered where it suits you—home, work, gym, pool, or community settings.
For whole-of-service support, see Neurological Physiotherapy. For dizziness or post-concussion contributors, see Vestibular & Dizziness.
Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy
CIMT is the most researched and best supported upper limb rehab therapy in the world!
So if you're eligible, it's the gold-standard treatment and the best rehab option we can offer you.
CIMT is for people with 'mild to moderate' upper limb impairment. That means you need some movement in your hand- if you can grasp and release with your hand (like a tissue or facewasher), then you likely have enough movement in your hand to benefit.
CIMT has evidence for improving arm function in people who've had a stroke and other brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, incomplete spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's disease.
Ashan Weerakkody from Cortex Neuro Rehab is an expert in CIMT and has delivered over 100 CIMT programs to patients in Perth.
He also provides training to physiotherapists across Australia to learn how to provide this effective therapy.
Hemiplegic shoulder pain
Shoulder pain is common in neurological conditions.
Just because it's common, doesn't mean it's ok.
Several factors contribute to shoulder pain.
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Weakness
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Muscle imbalances
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Spasticity/muscle tone changes
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Contracture (muscle shortening)
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Subluxation (partial dislocation)
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Poor joint alignment
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Joint restriction
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Altered pain processing
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Tendon pathology
Shoulder pain can be due to one or many of these factors.
At Cortex Neuro Rehab, we are experts at diagnosing the cause of your shoulder pain and then developing an evidence-based plan to treat and manage your pain.
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Severe upper limb impairment
This is a huge area of challenge in neurological rehab, where we're still waiting on the research to give us conclusive guidance on how best to manage people with very little movement in their arm and hand. (If you've got some movement, we should be providing CIMT!)
But there are some trends we see in the research. Firstly, the dose and intensity of rehab is most important. That means you need to use and move your arm, a lot, like 2-3 hours a day a lot!
Functional task practice is key, but it's important to incorporate active strength training into any upper limb rehabilitation program- because it's usually weakness that's stopping you using your arm.
But what happens when you don't have enough movement to practice tasks? Other tools that we can use include electrical stimulation, particularly EMG-triggered stimulation, mirror box therapy and active motor training.
At Cortex Neuro Rehab, we strongly believe that all upper limbs have the potential to improve and work with you towards realistic, achievable goals.
