Rehabilitation Medicine

Overview of the department

We are responsible for treatment to promote functional recovery from movement, sensory, and communication disorders related to various diseases and maximally prolong the residual function in cooperation with various departments, including the Department of Orthopedics, Department of Neurosurgery, and Department of Neurology. We help patients to achieve home/social rehabilitation.

Consultation system/therapeutic strategies

Diseases treated in our department vary: sports-related trauma, such as fracture and ligament injury, chronic low back/cervical pain, spinal cord injury, bone/articular diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and arthrosis deformans, limb anomalies/amputation, cerebrovascular disorder (cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage), sequelae/paralysis after head trauma, neuromuscular diseases (Parkinson’s disease), peripheral neuropathy, cerebral palsy, acute myocardial infarction, acute respiratory failure, and lymphedema.
To provide efficient rehabilitation treatment, patient-based rehabilitation prescriptions are prepared by combining exercise therapy, physical therapy, such as hyperthermia/traction/electrostimulation therapies, occupational therapy, speech therapy, brace therapy, and the preparation of artificial limbs in accordance with patients’ conditions based on the appropriate diagnosis of disorders, evaluation of the residual function, and prediction of functional recovery. Admission to the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine is possible. Not only outpatient services but also intensive rehabilitation treatment can be performed.

Advanced medical practice

As a collaborative study with the Department of Orthopedics, gait analysis and muscle-strength/knee-instability assessment are conducted to evaluate the pathogenesis and treatment response of cervical spondylotic myelopathy, stenosis of the lumbar spinal canal, and arthrosis deformans. To clarify the pathogenesis from the viewpoint of rehabilitation for neurological diseases, various load-/gait-based activities are analyzed, and electromyograms are evaluated. The effects of occupational therapy on rheumatoid arthritis are evaluated using an electrogoniometer and SMEDLEY’S hand dynamometer. As occupational therapy for higher brain dysfunction, treatment is provided while evaluating the activation of the frontal lobe function using a mental age meter (Advanced Trail Making Test).
In the future, such treatments and research will be further developed, and research activities on various diseases will be actively promoted.

Primary examinations and explanations

As large treatment instruments, Kin-Com/BIODEX, which provide a constant load for muscle-strength reinforcement/evaluation, gait-assisting robots, which minimize lower limb loads for gait training, and a treadmill with a maximum slope of 32% are used. Our department is equipped with a three-dimensional gait analyzer (Vicon Nexus), telemeter-type electromyograph, gait simulation system (SIMM Gait), and knee movement-measuring system for evaluating knee ligament injury (KNEELAX3) as biotechnological analyzers. In addition, disturbance assessment is conducted using metabolic system-measuring devices, such as a gas metabolism analyzer and noninvasive near-infrared-ray oxygen monitor. Using these systems, quantified data are visually presented to patients so that they can see the treatment response themselves. Favorable results have been obtained by improving their motivation toward rehabilitation.