What is Real Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could see how your muscles were contracting as you were doing exercises?
You can! The technique is called Real Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy.
Image: Ultrasound image of stomach muscles.
Using a diagnostic ultrasound, we can watch your different layers of muscles contract, relax and most importantly look at their muscle contraction timing, size and even how much fatty tissue is contained within your withered old muscles. Yes, it's just like seeing an unborn baby.
What Conditions Benefit from Real Time Ultrasound Physiotherapy?
Common Ultrasound Physiotherapy Conditions
Ultrasound physiotherapy can be used for any muscle retraining. The most popular conditions that can be assisted by real time ultrasound physiotherapy include:
Lower Back Pain - Transversus Abdominus & Multifidus
Sciatica
SIJ Pain
Pregnancy back pain
Pelvic instability
Hip Pain - Gluteal tendinopathy
Shoulder Pain - Rotator cuff
Knee Pain - VMO activation
Foot Exercises - Flat Feet
Core Exercises
Pelvic Floor
Pilates
Dry Needling
Core Exercises & Back Pain
Back pain researchers pioneered real time ultrasound physiotherapy in the successful treatment of lower back pain. They found that the best way to activate the correct core stability muscles is to actually see them working on a real-time ultrasound scan as you perform the core exercises.
When we attempt to retrain your deep core stability muscle such as Transversus Abdominis or Multifidus being able to feel the muscle working is very important.
Unfortunately, since the Transversus Abdominis
muscle is located deep in your abdomen and beneath two outer muscles, it can be quite hard to feel whether it is switching on or not. And, it's almost
impossible to detect whether the outer two muscles are working rather than the correct muscle.
This is where the real time ultrasound scanner comes into its own. The technique of ultrasound retraining, carried out with the guidance of a specially trained ultrasound physiotherapist, enables you to quickly learn how to correctly contract your transversus abdominis, multifidus and other core muscles.
The ultrasound scanner provides you and your physiotherapist with a video picture of your muscles working. This enables you to precisely match up what you think you feel with what is actually happening beneath your skin at that very moment. This makes it much easier for you to correctly do your deep core stability exercises at home, which will quicken the solution to your pain.