Joint and connective tissue diseases

Rehabilitation in Connective Tissue Diseases

“…Posture for the hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows and wrists are recommended at the end of rehabilitation sessions in order to help preserve the obtained progress. It is essential that patients learn self-rehabilitation exercises and perform them regularly supervised by the healthcare provider at first then at home [21][22][23][24].…”

“…Exercises are performed with joints at charge if possible, they can be specific to a joint or a through a complex motion of the limb enhancing the coordination between agonist and antagonist muscle groups [19,23,24]. Occupational therapy can help to increase significantly the upper limbs function and reduce functional dependence for daily activities through exercises that focus on the fine gripping gestures and wrist and fingers postures [5][6][7][8]19,23,24]. Orthotics for hands and wrists are indicated to decrease pain, to preserve function and to reduce deformities.…”

“…They can be used to maintain the joints in resting position to temporarily put to rest inflamed joints or to compensate for a lack in one direction of the range of motion. A regular evaluation based on their tolerance, degree of pain reduction and efficiency to reduce malalignment should be performed and decide whether they have to be renewed or not [21][22][23][24].…”

“…For the upper limbs they reduce pain and joint stress by widening grip making thin objects easier to hold and extending the reach, they are prescribed keeping in mind the patient's environment and individual expectations. For the lower limbs they provide much needed help to make walking less energy consuming and much safer by reducing the risk of falls [19,[21][22][23][24].…”