Kota Kinabalu: Hands through touch have healing power, according to Senior Physiotherapist Nur Hidayah Ong Abdullah of Hospital Sultanah Amirah, Johor Bahru.She was present here to deliver a talk on therapy and rehabilitation at the 1st Sabah State Hand Intensive Symposium & Workshop at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 2 auditorium."Our hands are very important to feel patient's discomfort, having a healing touch and an encouraging gesture to motivate their will to recover," she said.
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In the past, there have been instances of over-zealous medical personnel who refused to feel or touch patients. There were public calls for these dispiriting bad attitude doctors to refrain from practice.
There were reports from holier-than-thou doctors using pencils to feel the pulse of patients to using thick industrial non-surgical gloves as a buffer to handle their non-infectious out-patients. These are against conventional and acceptable medical practice.In Malaysia, Ong said physiotherapists and doctors or orthopaedic surgeons have to work closely together to help patients recover from their ailments or disability.
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However, the patients must have the discipline and will-power to overcome pain and discomfort to follow through the recommended exercises and in some cases life-style changes for good.There are no doctors who are also qualified physiotherapists in government hospitals and hence there is a clear demarcation of roles between the two practices.
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She lamented the increasing numbers of younger patients who sought treatments in hospitals for hand and wrist problems from gaming or mobile devices usage, including tennis elbow which afflicts many members of the public using computers."We are seeing more and more of these young patients. Our hands are important to be able to drive properly by being able to hold and control the vehicle steering in all driving situations. If we have problems with our hands, our driving effective skill will suffer and could endanger others," she said.Statistics from insurance companies have shown that most accidents were caused by young drivers with few years of driving experience. The current trend of multi-tasking when driving using a mobile device which is an offence under traffic regulations did not help to better the high accident rate situation.Ong spoke on stenosing tenosynovitis and compressive neuropathy. Tenosynovitis occurs to tendons inside synovial sheaths. For gamers who suffer from trigger finger or De Quervain, the sheath produces excessive synovial fluid which accumulates, and the sheath becomes swollen and painful."De Quervain's Tenosynovitis is a painful inflammation of tendons: exterior pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis longus."The pain, which is the main complaint, gets worse with abduction of the thumb, grasping action of the hand and an ulnar deviation of the wrist. Thickening and swelling can also be present.
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"Trigger finger is thought to be caused by inflammation and subsequent narrowing of the pulley of the affected digit, typically the third or fourth," she explained.For physiotherapy management, she recommends rest, electrotherapy using ultrasound or short wave therapy, thermal therapy, exercise like stretching, gliding exercise and strengthening exercise.
