Other Conditions Treated

Main Number: 706-724-7746, 800-4WALTON        
Inpatient Referrals: 706-826-5808

The quality of life in patients with many other conditions can be improved through rehabilitation. Walton offes both inpatient and outpatient services that address these conditions. While thes are some of the more common conditions treated, there may be others that similarly affect function and quality of life.

Brain Tumors

This year, more than 190,000 Americans will be diagnosed with a metastatic or primary brain tumor. Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, as well as emotion and movement, their effects on an individual's physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating. On the acute level, brain tumors are treated by surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy used either individually or in combination. Enhancing the quality of life of people with brain tumors requires access to quality rehabilitative services, which can help a patient become more independent by teaching strategies to help them accomplish daily tasks such as feeding or dressing more successfully.

Cancer Rehabilitation

Research supports that people with a variety of cancers can be best treated in an outpatient rehabilitation setting where their deficits, such as cancer related fatigue, can be addressed.

Benefits of therapy include:

• A safe, supervised, and individualized exercise program
• Closely monitored progress
• Patient and family education addressing issues of wellness and return of healthful living
• Patient taking an active role in management of symptoms

Deconditioning

Deconditioning can be defined as the multiple, potentially reversible changes in body systems brought about by physical inactivity and disuse. Such changes often have significant functional and clinical consequences in older people. Deconditioning commonly occurs in two situations: (1) a sedentary lifestyle, which is common in older people even in the absence of significant disease or disability and may result in a slow, chronic decline in physical fitness; and (2) bed or chair rest during an acute illness, which can lead to rapid physical decline.

Gait Disorders

The pattern of how a person walks is called the gait. Many different types of gait abnormalities are produced unconsciously. Most, but not all, are due to some physical malfunction.

Guillain Barre Syndrome

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acquired immune-mediated inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nervous system (i.e. not the brain or spinal cord). GBS is a rare disease affecting about 1 to 2 people in every 100,000 annually. It does not discriminate with regard to the age or gender of sufferers.

Following the acute phase, the patient may need rehabilitation to regain lost functions. The inpatient treatment will focus on improving activities of daily living, mobility, swallowing, respiratory function, ambulation, and restoring functional strength, and independence.

Lumbar Stenosis

Spinal stenosis is a medical condition where the spinal canal narrows and pinches the spinal cord and nerves, usually due to disc herniation or a tumor. This may affect the cervical spine, the lumbar spine or both. Lumbar spinal stenosis results in low back pain as well as pain or abnormal sensations in the legs.

Typical treatment includes weight loss and activity modification, such as using a walker to promote a certain posture. Epidural steroid injections may also help relieve the leg pain.

Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disease that attacks the central nervous system. An autoimmune reaction causes stripping of protective nerve covering. This event leads to the expression of symptoms, which is different in every patient.

These symptoms include but are not limited to:

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Spasticity

The expression of these symptoms may fluctuate as the disease flares, calms down and then repeats the cycle. With the advent of new disease modulating treatments, the advanced stages of disability that result from recurrent bouts of this nerve stripping may become less common.

A therapy evaluation can assist a patient in determining the factors at play and combating them through a therapeutic exercise program such as one aimed at reducing spastic muscles or maintaining functional strength for mobility and self care. Energy conservation techniques and pacing can also help contain the effects of fatigue. Modalities such as heat or cold can augment the effects of exercise. Medications for spasticity come in many forms, pills, injections and pumps.

Neuropathies

Neuropathy is a disease of the peripheral nervous system. There is no standard course of treatment for neuropathies. Treatment is symptomatic and supportive and may include orthopedic surgery and bracing to improve mobility, and measures to protect against stress fractures-particularly in the feet and legs.

Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease of the substantia nigra, an area in the basal ganglia of the brain. About 2% of the population develops the disease some time during life, though the mean age at onset is 58-60. Symptoms usually begin in the upper extremities, and are usually unilateral (one-sided) or asymmetrical at onset.

Regular physical exercise and/or therapy are beneficial to the patient and essential for maintaining and improving mobility, flexibility, balance and range of motion, and for a better resistance against many of the secondary symptoms and side effects. There is increasing evidence that exercise is both neuroprotective against the development of Parkinson's disease, and also ameliorative of both severity of symptoms, and also possibly of progression. Additional exercise modalities such as Aquatic Therapy Treatment Program may also hold promise as rehabilitation therapies.

Post Polio Syndrome

Post-polio syndrome is a condition that frequently affects survivors of poliomyelitis, a viral infection of the nervous system, after recovery from an initial paralytic attack of the virus. Typically the symptoms appear 20-40 years after the original infection, at an age of 35 to 60. Symptoms include new or increased muscular weakness, pain in the muscles, and fatigue.

Post-polio patients are also often noted to have memory problems, various cognitive difficulties, and an increased sensitivity to anesthetics. Weight gain is also a frequently noted symptom, though it's hard to tell if this is due to the disorder directly or due to the decreased level of physical activity that usually accompanies the disorder.

Post-polio syndrome often causes significant levels of pain, sometimes in specific muscles or joints, and sometimes body-wide. Look to Walton Pain Center for a comprehensive consultation! Wheelchairs (particularly powered wheelchairs) and "scooters" (small battery-powered vehicles) are useful both to conserve energy and to reduce the stress on weakened joints and muscles. Walton sponsors a Wheelchair and Equipment Clinic that many post-polio patients may find useful.

To make a referral or for more information about Walton's general rehabilitation services, call 706-826-5808,