Aquatic Therapy as a Modality for Managing Chronic Athletic Injuries: A Systematic Review
Role of Aquatic Therapy in Sports Injuries
Keywords:
Aquatic Therapy, Hydrotherapy, Rehabilitation, Sports InjuriesAbstract
Background: This review will help bridge knowledge gaps by synthesizing the available research and clinical outcomes in order to understand how aquatic therapy works compared to traditional methods in sports injuries. Evidence from such an analysis is relevant for providing evidence-based recommendations. It works toward better integration into the standard rehabilitation protocol, having recovery outcomes and optimized rehabilitation strategies for injured athletes.
Methodology: A literature search on electronic databases including Google Scholar, PubMed, and Cochrane Library has been extended to studies published in English from 2019 to 2024. These databases broadly cover health-related literature for aquatic therapy and athletic injury rehabilitation.
Results: This review analyzed 5 out of 123 studies obtained from various databases, consisting of two high-quality, two moderate-quality, and one low-quality study. The findings of these studies indicated that aquatic therapy is highly effective for rehabilitating chronic athletic injuries, particularly ankle sprains. All the reviewed studies showed a substantial reduction in pain for athletes who underwent aquatic therapy.
Conclusion: Aquatic therapy presents several advantages in rehabilitating chronic athletic injuries. Its unique properties, pain-reducing, function-improving, and physiologically enhancing, make this a holistic approach to injury management.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Safiya Naz, Sonia Mangi, Rida Saima, Warda Zehra
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