Journal Club: A New Tool For Neuro Clinics

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A very happy New Year to all who follow and share this platform! My holiday season was a blast spending time with family and rewatching Christmas through my young children's eyes. It is always so special. So, I hope you also had a wonderful holiday season and are excited and looking forward to fresh start with this new year.

I wanted to start off the year by sharing a very recent study that focused on neurological conditions. It's been a little while since we've had a focused study for my neuro PT's out there, so I hope this will be of some value to improve your neuro practice right at the start of the new year.

Blood flow restriction (BFR) has been in use in many aspects of strength and conditioning and orthopedic care for quite some time. The physiologic principles are sound and when it is used with the right patient, at the right time, for the right reason, there are good results in functional recovery and improvement. And that's why this study from the Journal of Neuro PT caught my eye. The researchers in this study decided to apply BFR to patient's with Parkinson's Disease (PD).

BFR Training in People with Parkinson's Disease

The researchers recruited patients with PD, obtained some baseline functional measures (I won't list them all here, they are documented in the article), and then had them go through some treatment sessions using BFR with reassessment after a time period.  The researchers found that there was significant improvement in many of the baseline measures and that that contributed to improvement in function. So, BFR may be a feasible and fairly low overhead treatment that can enhance treatment sessions for patients who have PD. Definitely read through the article to gain further understanding of the parameters and results. But, it could be a great adjunct therapy for you to use. The authors also make sure to site the further follow up studies on efficacy are warranted but this study is a step in the right direction.

Jason

**Check out my book "Rehab the World" written for Physical Therapists and other rehab professionals to encourage us in our workplace and prepare us to serve those around us. If you like, please leave a review and spread the word!!**

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