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What is Physiatry?
By: Our Medical Team | October 28, 2024
Physiatry
Returning to health after illness or injury can be frustrating and emotionally taxing, as can living with disabling conditions that affect your quality of life. Pain and physical limitations may impact your ability to do your job or participate in activities you love. They may affect everyday functions such as standing, walking, reaching and grasping. Physiatrists specializing in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation can help you regain your ability to experience life to the fullest through non-surgical treatments that eliminate pain and restore functionality.
How do you pronounce “physiatry”?
Physiatry is pronounced fih-ZAI-uh-tree.
Sometimes wrongly mistaken for psychiatrists – a completely different medical specialty!!!!
What training does a physiatrist have?
Physiatry is a medical specialty. Physiatrists are board-certified medical doctors who have completed residency and additional years of training/fellowships in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). This field of medicine focuses on improving physical function lost as a result of injury, illness or disabling conditions. Physiatrists are experts on the bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves that control how your body is affected by trauma, such as joint and spinal pain, sports injuries, repetitive use injuries, strokes, and other musculoskeletal conditions.
Physiatrists often take a holistic injury management approach to recovery that encompasses a patient’s physical, vocational, emotional and social needs. They may have additional subspecialty certifications in areas ranging from pain management to sports medicine to neuromuscular diseases to palliative care. Depending on their specialty, physiatrists may perform specialized diagnostic tests or treatments requiring advanced training, such as electromyography (EMG) or trigger point injections in outpatient clinics or inpatient settings. Their expert medical training enables them to diagnose the injury, design individual treatments and prescribe medication to help manage the specific pain, treat the root cause of the problem and encourage healing with natural biologics.
When should you consider seeing a physiatrist?
When pain, disability or weakness is constraining movement or function, it’s time to engage a physiatrist in your care and rehabilitation. As exceptional diagnosticians, they will trace the illness or injury from cause and presentation — how it is affecting you — through ancillary effects to the issue at the core of your limitations. Once identified, the physiatrist’s goal is to help you maximize your functional capabilities while adapting to or strengthening your weaknesses, leading with effective, non-surgical treatments.
Because physiatrists’ expertise lies in diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal problems, they should be the first option sought when suffering from any form of muscular pain, strained mobility, or any issue affecting everyday body functionality. In addition, physiatrists may specialize in treating conditions such as arthritis, chronic lumbar/back pain, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, spinal cord injuries, fractures and muscular dystrophy.
What can you expect from a physiatrist assessment?
A physiatrist’s goal is to create an effective treatment plan that addresses the root cause of an injury or debilitating condition. The physiatrist evaluation encompasses one’s medical history, current health status, symptoms and physical limitations. The physiatrist may also perform diagnostic tests, such as electromyography (EMG), nerve conduction studies (NCS) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPS), to further assess any suspected neurological or musculoskeletal issues, and carefully review imagery such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and musculoskeletal ultrasounds. They may consult with other specialists, such as primary care physicians, neurologists and orthopedic surgeons.
What types of treatments do physiatrists perform?
Once the root cause of the problem is diagnosed, a treatment plan unique to the patient will be created that encompass minimally-invasive, non-surgical procedures, such as:
- Regenerative Biologic therapy – Reduces inflammation, initiate repair and stimulate the production of healthy tissue
- The Discseel® Procedure – Repairs damaged or torn spinal discs with Fibrin, a biologic that seals the disc, reduces pain-causing nerve inflammation, and returns the disc to normal mechanical strength
- Platelet-rich plasma therapy – Accelerates healing and enhance recovery using a concentration of the patient’s own platelets and growth factors injected into an injured area
- Joint steroid injections – Quickly relieves pain, stiffness or loss of movement caused by swollen joints — hip, shoulder, elbow, knee, wrist, foot, ankle
- Epidural steroid injections – Combat pain and improve mobility quickly and effectively for conditions such as disc injury and degenerative changes through an injection of local anesthetics and potent anti-inflammatory medication
- Pulsed radiofrequency – In conditions such as sciatica, spinal stenosis, herniated discs and post-surgical pain, pulsed radiofrequency is used to block damaged or irritated nerves’ ability to transmit pain
- Radiofrequency thermocoagulation – Interrupt pain signals to provide relieve from chronic low back pain, thoracic spine pain, sacroiliac joint dysfunction and other conditions
- Nerve blocks – Selective nerve root blocks or medial brand blocks that decrease pain, inflammation and numbness, especially in the neck, back and limbs
- Botox® – Injections that treat chronic migraines and headaches
When should you see an orthopedic surgeon instead of a physiatrist?
Physiatrists treat pain and injury through non-surgical procedures. Orthopedic surgeons will offer surgery as a treatment option for musculoskeletal injuries. Surgery may unfortunately be necessary but non-surgical solutions should first be exhausted to avoid the risks and lengthy recovery time associated with surgery. Physiatrists will refer a patient to an orthopedic surgeon if they believe surgery is the only solution for the patient’s painful condition.
What is the difference between a physiatrist and a physical therapist?
As board-certified medical doctors with years of post-graduate study in physical medicine and rehabilitation, physiatrists diagnose the root cause of a condition, establish a treatment plan and manage a patient’s condition on their journey toward regaining day-to-day function and quality of life. Physical therapists are also highly trained to concentrate on rehabilitation as guided by the physiatrist, often using specialized exercises and other hands-on procedures to move patients toward greater mobility.
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