Customer Spotlight:
Kelly Pesanelli, Boston University
Recently we spoke with Kelly Pesanelli,
a Physical Therapist at Boston University, whose experience with aquatic
therapy began two years ago when the University installed a SwimEx
Model 700-T in its new athletic facility.
Why did BU choose SwimEx for
its aquatic therapy pool?
The main reason we went with SwimEx was that after extensive
research and comparison, we felt that SwimEx was the best choice for
what we hoped to accomplish. From the therapy side, we valued the
ease in ability to vary the depth of water that the patient is working
in, the laminar flow current, and the work stations. The SwimEx was
installed as part of the initial construction of our center and everything
else built around it.
We understand your pool is co-utilized for Physical Therapy and Athletic
Training. Can you describe your rehabilitation facility and your patient
population?
Our patient population is primarily outpatient orthopedics.
Patient age range would be from 12 to 80 years old. Conditions vary
from joint replacements, to ligament reconstructions, to rheumatic
conditions. The primary population age, I would say, is between 18
and 35, skewed more toward athletic injuries.
Of the population, I would say 20% are from the athletic
department, and 80% are from our sports medicine center. Of these,
40% are from the campus population, 60% from the outside community.
How do you market your aquatic therapy pool?
We direct market to area physicians and benefit from “word of
mouth” growth. The response has been fantastic. Once referral
sources know you have an aquatic therapy pool it opens
an avenue of care that can be hard to find within a city.
What has been your experience
with aquatic therapy?
It’s absolutely amazing. Not only are we providing aquatic therapy
to patients whose rehab is greatly enhanced, but we are
exposing graduate students to practical applications,
as opposed to simply theory. Currently, there are several graduate
researchers who are conducting research at our center for their doctorate
degrees. So far, our SwimEx has played an important role in this research.
Describe how you use the SwimEx workstations and
laminar flow current in your treatments.
It depends upon the area that is affected. I would say that
a large percentage of our patients who sustain knee injuries
utilize the SwimEx for aquatic therapy. Having a lift is a great facilitator
to taking advantage of aquatic therapy early in the rehabilitation
process. When a patient is weight bearing, I’ll keep the platforms
in so the water is at four feet. And I will have them do warm-ups depending
upon their current level, then work on stretching. Patients
absolutely love stretching in the water.
From there we’ll progress to closed chain exercises. I’ll
use the current, along with the different work stations. We just bought
Burdenko water walkers which are fantastic. Patients can walk backwards,
forwards, sidestepping with the current. Then we’ll do functional
training, such as gait training or stairs. We’ll work on functional
lifting by using a milk crate and having the patient go over body mechanics
in the water. We’ll do sports specific training, too, whether
it be agility drills for basketball, or taking the last platform out
and having them run. We’ll do perturbation training.
We also use the work stations to increase their weight as
they go through the program. They’ll start off doing a step-up
on the six-inch platform, the yellow level, then progress to the royal
blue, then the green, or we’;ll have them walk circumferentially
around the pool using the work stations to progress into
more shallow water.
One of the other benefits of aquatic therapy is being able
to allow patients to run in a closed chain manner, which
I think is absolutely fantastic—whether it’s cross training
or for somebody rehabilitating an injury. We see a lot of injuries in
here—having
the Boston Marathon—and just being able to get them back to running
to maintain their endurance while they’re rehabilitating an injury
is just amazing.
Patients will come back and say, ‘You know Kelly, that really
felt like I was running on a windy day,’ which to us is fantastic,
because that’s what we’re trying to simulate. And for them
to say it was actually more challenging than running...well, it’s
great, because we’re able to maintain their cardiovascular status
and maintain their ability to run while they’re rehabilitating
an injury.
Could you give a guess as to how aquatic therapy reduces
treatment time as a general rule?
It’s diagnosis specific, obviously, but with knee osteoarthritis,
I would say treatment is decreased by 25% by having them in the water,
and this is what we’re looking at proving scientifically, starting
in September. I have patients come in who absolutely cannot go up and
down stairs, and within three to four weeks they’ll say, ‘Kelly,
I can go up and down stairs and it doesn’t hurt!’
What advice would you have for other Physical Therapists
considering ‘a leap’ into Aquatic Therapy?
I think it’s absolutely fantastic. I think it’s a great
additional treatment medium for almost all patients. Between patient
feedback and our own results, it’s worth it just for pain reduction.
As soon as patients get in the water, pain diminishes. And that just
increases what we’re able to do with them, and ultimately, decreases
their treatment time.
Read the Boston University Community Newsletter story about their new SwimEx.