Vibration As A Modality In Occupational Therapy
By David F. Garner OTR/L Nancy was a 74-year-old female who had a total left hip replacement. During the first few sessions of occupational therapy at the skilled nursing facility, her participation in therapy was greatly limited by 8-9 out of 10 pain. She refused sessions because of pain. She was taking the maximum doses of pain medicine and due to other issues, was unable to take muscle relaxers. After an assessment, I determined much of her pain was due to muscle tightness and cramps in her thigh and low back secondary to post-surgical guarding reaction. In our third session, I tried our vibrating massager to see if that would relieve her pain. After 10 minutes of vibration set to 60 Hz, her pain decreased from 9/10 to 4/10. She then participated more easily in dressing tasks. For each subsequent session when her pain was high, she was brought to the gym a few minutes early and used the vibrating massager on herself. Sometimes, she would stay after and continue treating herself. Vi