Abstract
An 81-year-old female patient with an adhesive small bowel obstruction requiring dual surgical adhesiolysis was seen for physical therapy treatment for 14 sessions over 10 days in the inpatient acute care setting. Treatment was provided by a physical therapist student under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist.The patient was evaluated at the initial encounter with the numeric pain rating scale, the modified Borg dyspnea scale, the modified 30 second sit-to-stand, the activity measure for post-acute care, and the 10-meter walk test. The Well’s criteria was used as a diagnostic test to detect deep vein thrombosis, and the activity measure for post-acute care was used as a prognostic test to predict discharge disposition.
A plan of care was established to address the patient’s abdominal pain, dyspnea, functional strength, gait speed, and functional mobility. Main goals for the patient were to improve respiratory function, reduce abdominal pain, restore functional strength, increase walking speed, regain independence with basic mobility and activities of daily living, and return to community ambulation. The main interventions used were breathing exercises, patient education, strengthening exercises, task-specific functional mobility training, as well as gait and community ambulation training. The patient demonstrated improvements in abdominal pain, dyspnea, functional strength, and independence with functional mobility tasks and activities of daily living. The patient was discharged home where she lived independently after 13 days of inpatient care with a referral to home health services.