• Improve endurance.
• Increase joint mobility.
• Decrease edema (swelling).
• Minimize osteopenic changes.
• Maximize functional activity.
• Desensitize the hypersensitive area.
• Increase strength and motor control.
• Decrease painful stimuli from the periphery.
• Restore normal blood flow and autonomic functions.
• Reverse and/or reduce the psychological dysfunction associated with RSD.

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy, commonly referred to as "RSD", is a disorder of unknown cause that usually occurs following a surgical or traumatic insult.   RSD typically affects a single extremity with symptoms such as pain, increased sweating, hypersensitivity, swelling, tenderness, circulatory and skin changes.  

Other medical diagnoses which are associated with this syndrome include: causalgia, shoulder-hand syndrome, painful osteoporosis, traumatic neuralgia, post-traumatic dystrophy, and chronic traumatic edema.

In accordance with success documented in the current research dealing with this diagnosis, it is clear that early medical intervention and rehabilitation is critical in the treatment of this disease. Most research clearly identifies the important role that physical therapy plays in the successful rehabilitation of patients with RSD.

At TOTAL HEALTH Physical Therapy, our caring, skilled, and knowledgeable staff is prepared and trained to develop rehabilitation programs for these challenging cases and we have the ability to assist patients with this diagnosis.

At TOTAL HEALTH Physical Therapy , our neurological rehabilitation plan of CARE will include:

• Gait training.



• Relaxation and energy saving techniques.



• Re-education of partially paralyzed musculature.



• Reduction of muscular, soft-tissue and joint pain.



• Prevention or correction of soft tissue and/or joint dysfunction.



• Accurate and complete assessment of the patient's current level of function and dysfunction.



• The establishment of realistic and functional short-term and long-term goals to help maximize the patient's rehabilitation potential.



• The involvement of other rehabilitative services, i.e., occupational therapy, vocational therapy and counseling, speech therapy, etc., as needed.



• Proprioceptive Neurological Facilitation (PNF) techniques to improve sensory and motor function.



• General fitness and conditioning exercises, strength training, mobility and transfer training, and functional training for return to work and recreational activity.

Persons who have suffered from a neurological deficit as a result of trauma, strokes, neuropathies, etc., know one thing to be true, life after the deficit is much more fulfilling when one has the ability to perform at one's hightest level of function.  

With this mind, the staff at TOTAL HEALTH Physical Therapy are skilled and experienced in developing a custom rehabilitation program for each patient with a neurological deficit that will encourage the integration of strength, motor control, balance, agility, mobility, gait, and coordination activities.