A physiatrist is a medical specialist who focusses on a patient's functional abilities. They are trained in aspects of multiple medical disciplines including orthopedics, neurology, rheumatology, surgery and general medicine. Their role as physicians includes prevention of permanent disability during acute care, restoration of mobility and indepencence as a part of recovery, therapeutic care of appropriate injury and disease and long-term management of progressive illness. A physiatrist enables each patient to realize their full potential, attain optimal fitness as a whole person, and empowers each to choose for themselves what their limits will be.
Whether you are limited by pain, injury of any kind, traumatic accident or simple overuse or strain, a physiatrist can help alleviate the obstacles you face daily.
Consultation and Treatment
An initial consultation with a physiatrist will include a detailed history of any symptoms you may experience, when and how these began and how they have altered your function in life. Next a careful physical examination of your musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems is completed, including a fairly comprehensive functional assessment. From these the physiatrist designs a treatment plan to eliminate symptoms and restore function.
Electrodiagnostic Testing
Nerve conduction studies and electromyography are two studies done together to create a map of a portion of the nervous system. These studies test how quickly and completely nerves transmit impulses. Dysfunction of the nerves due to traumatic damage or physiologic disease can be detected and localized quite precisely. These tests also evaluate how well the muscles and nerves connect and can identify any problems that might exist with the nerve transmitting signals to muscles, the muscles receiving signals from nerves or damage affecting the nerves or muscles individually.
