I’m so glad I watched this webinar! I was pretty unsure about BFR and didn’t know much about it so it was helpful to see more information about it.

My biggest thing is that I want to try it on myself before I put it on a patient or make any big moves towards implementing it. I think the potential is there for it to be pretty helpful, but I’d like to see it in action first.

I think it could be really good for post op patients that can’t load very much but need to get muscles working and gain strength. Thinking quads post knee surgery and gastroc post achilles repair…it could be just another tool in the toolbox. I tend to think we treat patients best when we have a bunch of options to work with. If our typical go-tos aren’t working, what else could we try? None of these “modalities” (dry needling, BFR, laser..) are end-all-be-alls or a magic cure, but if they can help get patients better faster, why not use them?

“Quadriceps strengthening with blood flow restriction for the rehabilitation of patients with knee conditions: A systematic review with meta-analysis”
I don’t have access to the full article, but the abstract of this article makes the point that in patients with knee conditions where we need to strengthen the quads, sometimes loading enough to create strength changes is too painful so BFR could be a good way to bridge between load and pain level.

The attached article is from BJSM and is a meta-analysis which seems to point favorably towards the use of BFR..