Rehabilitation
Step system
We will illustrate the course of medical rehabilitation by the example of inpatient rehabilitation of a leg amputee using the step concept as practiced at Staffelstein Medical Centre.
Step 1
- Improve the physical conditions
- Treatment of the residual limb such as toughening it, bandaging, moulding and manual lymphatic drainage
- Prescription and fabrication of a prosthesis suitable for the patient's needs at short notice, or inspection of an existing medical device.
Step 2
- Intensive walking training with the prosthesis
- Prolonging of the independent walking distance
- Extending the daily wearing time
- Optimisation of the prosthesis
- Learning to cope with the physical injury in individual and group discussions under the leadership of a psychologist
Step 3
- Gait analysis
- Training of everyday movements (climbing stairs, getting up after a fall, overcoming obstacles, donning and doffing the prosthesis without help)
- Gaining the greatest possible independence
- Initiation of a barrier-free conversion of the living and working places
It is difficult to give an exact day-by-day schedule for the individual steps or for the whole concept. Both children and teenagers as well as geriatric patients have rehabilitation at the Staffelstein Clinic after an amputation. The timeframe for the various patient groups is, of course, very different.
How long the course of rehabilitation lasts is decided on an individual basis. Rehabilitation in a suitable unit varies from patient to patient and can last between 3 and 10 weeks. As a rule, funders provide for a period of three to five weeks, in exceptional cases for up to seven weeks.
Mutual indemnity associations as cost bearers normally allow for longer treatment periods, a fact that is warmly welcomed by doctors. A young, dynamic amputee's treatment programme is different to that of a geriatric amputee. As a rule, a day consists of one unit of physiotherapy with walking training, then treatment units in occupational therapy, hydro- and physical therapy (e.g. baths, massage, electrotherapy etc), sports therapy and care therapy. This lasts about three to four hours a day, with breaks, whereby each treatment unit lasts about half an hour.