Rehabilitation in Iran: All You Need to Know

Medical rehabilitation or physiotherapy is a kind of treatment that is used to restore a certain function after an injury or to speed up the healing process. Physiotherapy is used to enhance the patient’s quality of life by letting them feel more free to move and do routine life activities.

Rehabilitation benefits

rehabilitation has many benefits, but those benefits differ depending on the type of therapy and condition. In general, rehabilitation helps the patients restore normal function and ease the pain.

Types of physiotherapy

There are few branches in physiotherapy, each of which is different from the other in the uses. The main branches of physiotherapy are:

1. Neurological physiotherapy
2. Orthopedic physiotherapy
3. Cardiopulmonary physiotherapy
4. Pediatric physiotherapy
5. Geriatric physiotherapy

Orthopedic Physiotherapy

Orthopedic physiotherapy generally deals with the repair of the malformations of the human musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic rehabilitation is used to correct muscles, ligaments, bones, and joints.

There are many different conditions that can be treated by orthopedic physiotherapy, including:

• Ligament strain
• The rehabilitation of fractures
• Inflammation of tendons or Bursa
• Osteo -Arthritis
• Rheumatoid – Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Ankylosing Spondylitis
• Scoliosis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Spondylolysis
• Surgical Rehabilitation of Hip
• Surgical Rehabilitation of Shoulder
• Surgical Rehabilitation of Knees and Foot/Ankle

Hand Therapy (Hand rehabilitation)

We all know that we need hands to do plenty of complex tasks. Since hands contain many bones, joints, muscles, and tendons, there are many possible illnesses that can affect them such as arthritis, bone fractures and many others.

Hand therapy is a common type of orthopedic physiotherapy that is used to treat the conditions associated with the hands, relief your pain, and help you regain the normal hand movements.

Shoulder therapy

Due to poor posture, many people today suffer from shoulder pain. Others may suffer from pain due to rotator cuff injuries. The physiotherapist will evaluate your condition and choose the best rehabilitation course for you to rehabilitate your shoulder’s movement and get rid of the pain.

Shoulder rehabilitation exercises

There are several exercises the physiotherapist might recommend for shoulder therapy such as:

Shoulder Serratus Dynamic Hug

With the rehabilitation bands or resistance band wrapped around the back to hold each end in your hands, you need to be abducting the shoulders about 60 degrees while bending the elbows about 45 degrees and elevate the shoulders. Start pushing the arms inward and forward like when you are giving someone a hug.

Knee therapy

The knees are among the most important joints in the human body. They support most of your weight while you stand or walk. Their role sometimes causes some serious injuries that may prevent you from walking or make you feel pain when you do.

Knee rehabilitation is used to treat the injuries of your knees and help you relieve the pain and prevent any further damage. The therapy will help you restore the normal movements of the knees.

The physiotherapist might advise you to wear a knee brace to help soothe the pain and provide comfort while moving.

Rehabilitation knee exercises

There are several knee exercises that can be used for knee rehabilitation such as:

Knee leg raise

You start by lying on your back with one knee bent and the other leg on the floor and then you tighten the knee and raise the leg to the height of the bent knee.

Wall Squats

Lay your back on the wall with your feet about 2 steps in front of you. Slide your back down till your thighs are parallel to the floor. Stay in that position for 5 to 10 seconds.

Pregnancy Physiotherapy

Although it is portrayed as a lovely period of time, pregnancy can cause a lot of pain to women. Pregnant women may feel a lot of pain whether during pregnancy or after delivery.

Medical rehabilitation can help the pregnant woman ease pain, reduce suffering, and strengthen her muscles.

Neurological Physiotherapy

In order for an organ to move, a signal from the nervous system needs to be sent to that organ. Some injuries and conditions can affect the nervous system preventing it from sending those signals or just disturbs them causing several symptoms such as loss of sensation, unbalance, weak muscles, and many more.

Neurological physiotherapy focuses on restoring the lost functions by making a pathway to transfer the signal or just repair the pathway.

Neurological rehabilitation is somehow different from conventional physiotherapy. The physiotherapist will look for the damaged part of the nervous system rather than treating the source of the pain. Afterward, he/she will try to find the proper way to make a connection between the nervous system and the source of the pain.

Neurological physiotherapy is used to treat several neurological conditions such as:

• Stroke
• Head injury
• Spinal cord injury
• Parkinson’s disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Sciatica
• Aneurysm
• Brain and spinal cord tumors

Benefits of neurological physiotherapy

Many advantages are linked to having reurological rehabilitation, including:

• Restoring normal movements
• Regaining the ability to do everyday tasks
• Strengthening the muscles
• Enhancing posture
• Reducing pain
• Decreasing the risks of chest infections
• Reducing breathing problems
• Increasing the balance
• Increasing the patient’s fitness

Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation

Cardiopulmonary physiotherapy or cardiorespiratory physiotherapy is a sub-specialty of physiotherapy that is used to treat or rehabilitate patients with problems in the lungs and heart.

Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation therapy is usually used to treat conditions like:

• Asthma
• Bronchitis
• Angina
• Heart Attack (MI)
• Heart or lung injury or surgery
• Congestive Cardiac Failure (CCF)
• Emphysema
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Peripheral Vascular Disease

Cardiopulmonary physiotherapy is very beneficial to patients who had a heart attack or other heart surgeries. People who have no heart disease can use cardiorespiratory physiotherapy to reduce the risk of a heart attack in the future.

Pediatric physiotherapy

Physiotherapy and rehabilitation are not only for adults, kids might have certain medical conditions too that can prevent them from walking and moving normally.

Pediatric physiotherapy is a sub-specialty of rehabilitation that involves dealing with kids under the age of 18. The kid might need physiotherapy for many reasons like injuries and genetic problems. Pediatric physiotherapist needs to be trained for several years before he/she can deal with kids.

Pediatric physiotherapy helps your child regain better movement and increase muscle strength. It can also help children improve their health and increase their ability to perform everyday tasks more easily.

For Kids, the sessions usually seem like a game the rehabilitation therapist will try to make it look fun to make it appealing for them. The exercises may include:

• Playing on an exercise ball
• Running
• Balancing on a balance beam

Kids may need pediatric physiotherapy to deal with many issues like when:

• They are recovering from injuries
• They have delays in development
• They have certain genetic disorders
• They suffer from muscles weakening
• They have certain nerve conditions

Geriatric physiotherapy

Geriatric physiotherapy is a sub-specialty of rehabilitation that is used to treat elder people who have some conditions caused by the aging process. As people age, their bodies get more fragile, their bones lose density and their movements get unbalanced.

Seniors are more prone to acute illnesses than younger people, so they need physiotherapy more. Illnesses can make them move less, maybe causing them to potentially lose mobility.

Geriatric physiotherapy helps elder people to become more independent by helping them improve balance, strengthening their muscles, and most importantly raising their confidence.

Benefits of geriatric rehabilitation

• Decreasing the risk of falling: Elder people have weaker bones, so falling can cause great damage. Geriatric physiotherapy is very important for old people who are recovering from a fall and to teach them how to prevent a fall in the future.
• Decreasing the risk of injury: Geriatric physiotherapy can help old people learn how to become more stable while moving. Gaining more stability can prevent the risks of an injury.
• Reducing the pain from chronic illnesses: Chronic illnesses can cause a lot of pain especially for elder people. Physical therapy can help relieve pain.
• Becoming more independent: when old people recover from illnesses, they can have a more independent lifestyle for longer periods of time.

Types of treatment used in physiotherapy

Magnetic therapy: This treatment involves using magnetics on the patient’s body in order to reduce the pain. There are 2 types of magnetic therapy: Static magnetic field therapy that involves using static magnetics on the body, and Electrically charged magnetic therapy (electromagnetic therapy) that uses electric magnets.

Taping: This method is usually a temporary treatment that is used when there is an injury. Taping help limit the movement of the affected area, promote the natural healing process and relief pain.

Joint mobilization: the main principle of joint mobilization is moving the joint at different speeds to help the patient regain normal function. Joint mobilization is not just a simple move of the joint as there are several types and grades of the joint mobilization. This method is used to treat cases like pain and stiffness in the joints.

Hydrotherapy: is a treatment that uses hot water to treat some kinds of injuries. This treatment involves exercises in hot water to help relax the muscles and enhance joint movement. That is why it is commonly used with arthritis patients.

Massage: Massage is a very common treatment. It is used to help relax muscles and other tissues, and relieve pain. Massage is used to help patients with conditions like muscle injury, arthritis, muscle spasm.

How to arrange medical rehabilitation in Iran?

As you might know, arranging medical rehabilitation abroad can be hard. Luckily, you can depend on AriaMedTour to take care of everything in Iran. By everything, we mean that AriaMedTour will help extract the visa, pick you up from the airport, take care of the accommodation and transportation and assign a personal assistant/interpreter to accompany you during your medical rehabilitation journey and for the communication bridge between you and your medical team.

AriaMedTour will choose the best medical rehabilitation centers in Iran with the best medical rehabilitation specialists for you so you can have the best results. After you come back home you can even enjoy the online follow-up to keep you in touch with your rehabilitation doctor(s) in case you need any further consultation. You just need to fill the form or contact AriaMedTour on WhatsApp to have a free online consultation and price quote for your own case and to have your whole journey for rehabilitation in Iran arranged.