How old is to too old to receive physical therapy on your knee flex/extension?

Question

I witnessed a patient in her 80's who is blind and practically nothing but skin and bones doing quadricep and hamstring strengthening exercises . I got chills because I questioned whether this was the best course of rehab . Her legs were the size of my wrist . When does Wolf's law become impractical for the elderly patients?

Answer 1

What do you propose we should do with this lady? Take her out and shoot her, end her misery? I am a geriatric PT and the median age of my patients is late 70s/early 80s. The purpose of rehabilitating the elderly is not so they can become body builders or get them in shape for the olympics, but to give them the best quality of life for the longest amount of time possible. PT is very beneficial to the geriatric population. An age limit on rehab is ridiculous; I see patients who are in their 90s who are in far better shape then some 50 and 60 year olds.

Answer 2

Wolfe's law is never impracticle.  According to Wolfe's law, exercise and weightbearing is not only beneficial from recovery from injury, but it is vital to maintain the integrity of the skeleton.  Lack of force and weightbearing can result in rapid decline of bone density and soft tissue organization (sarcopenia).  

Certainly in the elderly sometimes precautions need to be made as to how much force is too much, especially if that person has osteoporosis.  

I have had many patients in their 90s in an outpatient physical therapy program.

...in fact, traditional rehab programs of supine exercises are eventually going to be replaced by more moderate to high intensity programs due to their beneficial nature.  This has implications for recovery from hip fracture, falls, etc and overall maintence of daily functioning.

Answer 3

Dead.  That's the age limit.  Evey patient of knee surgery or other people who have something wrong with their knees need physical therapy!  If they don't, their knee wont heal properly and they'll be worse off than they were before the surgery.