Author Archives: Emily Jones

Students must perform multiple clinical rotations before they graduate PT or PTA school. When students come into our outpatient clinic, they are exposed to a wide variety of diagnosis. One that always baffles them is SMA. In most cases. SMA is briefly taught about in school, because physical therapy…

Your typical SMA patient spends much of their day sitting in a wheelchair. While this may be normal for them, it can cause problems with muscle tightness and soreness during their typical day. My patient, Michael, was diagnosed with severe hip, muscle, and nerve damage in his right…

  While the majority of students in physical therapy learn how to transfer patients in school with many different assistance requirements, patients who suffer from spinal muscular atrophy usually present more of a challenge than many physical therapists come across in the field, especially working in an outpatient setting. Some…

[two_third_last] If you are working with a patient with SMA, you will most likely find that they are in their wheelchair full time. This makes sitting balance very important for many reasons. If they have good sitting balance, this will make traveling up and down ramps easier and more…

For a patient with SMA to be able to function with their maximal amount of independence, it is important to have as much range of motion possible. As with the majority patients with SMA, my current patient with SMA spends most of his time in his wheelchair. Therefore, he…