Advanced Technology 

The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill uses NASA-based technology that allows patients to run and walk longer distances without bearing their entire body weight. This unrestricted, pain-free movement helps to reduce the impact on your body, allowing you to restore and build muscle strength, range of motion, balance and mobility.

Benefits of the AlterG

• Faster injury and surgery recovery
• Conditioning, both aerobic and sport-specific
• Reduced joint impact and stress during exercise
• Improved cardiovascular health
• Improved function and mobility

Blood flow restriction (BFR) therapy is a form of rehabilitation that helps increase strength with low intensity exercise, placing less stress on your joints. The technique involves applying a tourniquet-like cuff to an arm or leg to reduce blood flow while exercising. As muscles relax and contract during exercise, the device maintains constant pressure, enabling fewer exercise repetitions, use of lighter weights and enhanced muscle growth and strength gains.

Ideal for athletes and individuals with limited or restricted mobility, BFR builds strength before surgery, assists with pain issues and bridges the gap between rehabilitation and recovery, especially post-surgery.

Benefits of BFR

• Increased muscle size and strength
• Improved cardiovascular capacity
• Decreased joint/tissue stress

Along with other rehabilitation techniques, our therapists provide a manual therapy technique called cupping. Using special cups on the skin along with suction, the technique pulls blood to or away from parts of the body.

Benefits of cupping

• Decreased inflammation
• Decreased muscle spasms
• Decreased pain
• Improved blood and oxygen circulation
• Improved range of motion

Effective treatment for muscle, ligament and tendon injuries

Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) is a technique we often use in physical therapy. IASTM works like a standard massage, but specialized instruments are used in place of a physical therapist’s hands. These instruments allow more direct treatment of the soft tissues involved with movement. The tissues include:

• Muscles
• Fascia, connective tissue that surrounds and separates muscles
• Ligaments, tissue that connects bones to other bones
• Tendons, tissue that connects muscles to bones

IASTM can involve broad or targeted treatments. The former would be used for large muscle groups, such as an injured back, the latter for an injury to a particular area. By using different tools, angles and pressures, your therapist can focus on a specific layer of soft tissue during treatment.

The Benefits of IASTM

Targeted IASTM treatments can have a number of benefits, such as:

• Faster pain relief
• Improved mobility
• Quicker rehabilitation and recovery

IASTM focuses on specific areas to relieve stiffness and improve range of motion. This allows you to perform exercises your physical therapist recommends to strengthen the injured area, which promotes healing and can help restore your normal function.

A good candidate for IASTM

Anyone with soft-tissue pain, injuries or conditions can benefit from IASTM. These often include athletes, warehouse workers or others who perform a repeated motion many times per day. Some of the many conditions we can treat with IASTM include:

• Excessive scar tissue
• Forms of tendinitis or tendinopathy, including Achilles tendinitis, golfer’s and tennis elbow
• Muscle and ligament strains
• Running injuries, such as plantar fasciitis and iliotibial band syndrome (IT band)

However, some patients are not good candidates for IASTM. If you have a degenerative joint condition, such as arthritis, IASTM may help relieve pain in the tissues surrounding the joint but not in the joint itself. In addition, anyone with the following conditions should not receive IASTM therapy:

• An active form of cancer
• Bone fracture
• Diabetic neuropathy, a type of nerve damage that can occur with diabetes
• Peripheral artery disease (PAD), a circulatory condition that reduces blood flow to the arms or legs

A chronic or non-healing wound is generally defined as a sore, ulcer or other skin breakdown that that has not responded or significantly improved with conventional treatment over a 30-day period. These wounds are often associated with inadequate circulation, poorly functioning veins and immobility, and can lead to serious complications, including amputation.

Chronic wounds are a growing health problem. More than seven million Americans suffer from chronic wounds – and approximately 1.1 to 1.8 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Diabetes, a condition that affects nearly 26 million people, is one the most common causes of non-healing wounds. In fact, an estimated 15% of all diabetics will develop chronic wounds. However, studies show that specialized wound care treatment can help reduce such complications, optimize healing, reduce hospital stays and avoid amputation.

About the Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center

The Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center at Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation - Lakeway provides the highly specialized treatment that can help heal chronic wounds. Our team of wound care experts -- physicians, nurses and technicians – combines support, education and the most advanced treatments available to tailor treatment to optimize the recovery and quality of life of each patient. We have partnered with Healogics_TM, the world’s largest wound care management organization, to offer you new hope for healing.

Our approach

Treating chronic wounds is a complex and often challenging process. At our Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center, we draw on the expertise and experience of our clinical staff to create a plan of care that will best meet your individual needs. We begin with a comprehensive evaluation to determine the most effective course of treatment for you. Wounds we treat:

• Burns
• Diabetic ulcers
• Necrotizing fasciitis
• Neuropathic ulcers
• Peristomal skin irritations
• Pressure ulcers
• Surgical Wounds
• Traumatic wounds
• Vasculitis
• Venous Ulcers
• Venous insufficiency
• Osteoradionecrosis
• Delayed Radiation Injuries
• Osteomyelitis

We integrate the science and technology of healing with the care and support each patient needs to successfully recover. As part of this we continually challenge ourselves to explore the clinically proven methods that foster body's innate ability to heal and draw on the many resources that the Healogics_TM network provides.

Treatment options

• Advanced dressings and wraps
• Bio-engineered tissue substitutes
• Compression therapy
• Debridement
• Edema management
• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
• Negative pressure wound therapy

Education

Education is a key component of our program. We will work closely with you and your family to make sure that you understand your condition, what to expect from your treatment and how to manage your wound at home. As part of this comprehensive approach to care, we offer:

• Diabetes management
• Infectious-disease management
• Nutrition management
• Pain management

Getting started with wound care treatment

A referral from your physician will get the process started, but you can also contact us directly to schedule an appointment. Your first visit will include a comprehensive diagnostic examination to identify the type of wound you have and the underlying problems that have caused the wound. We will also review your overall health status and discuss your ability to comply with the treatment program. Some of the diagnostic modalities which may be used include:

• Laboratory evaluation
• Radiology (including MRI)
• Vascular studies

Based on this evaluation, we develop a customized care plan that will incorporate the most effective therapies for your needs. Wound size and depth are documented at the initial visit, and again at each subsequent visit. For more information about the Wound Care and Hyperbaric center or to make an appointment, call (512) 263-4568 or you can fax referrals to (512) 366-3978.