Multiple Sclerosis
Post Rehab Goals and Objectives:
- Maintain the progress made during Occupational and Physical Therapy
- Improve Coordination, Balance, Functional Strength and Endurance
- Improve Overall Functional Capacity
- Improve Gait Pattern
- Maintain and Improve ROM
Anatomy / Physiology / Pathology
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, potentially debilitating disease that affects your central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis is widely believed to be an autoimmune disease, a condition in which your immune system attacks components of your body as if they were foreign.
In people with multiple sclerosis, the immune system mistakenly destroys the cells that produce the myelin sheath. As a result, myelin becomes inflamed and swollen and detaches from the nerve fibers. The detached myelin may eventually be destroyed. Firm or hardened (sclerosed) patches of scar tissue form over the fibres. When nerve impulses reach a damaged area, some impulses are blocked or delayed from traveling to or from your brain. Ultimately, this process leads to degeneration of the nerves themselves, which likely accounts for the permanent disabilities that may develop in MS.
Multiple sclerosis affects an estimated 300,000 people in the United States and probably more than 1 million people around the world - including twice as many women as men. Most people experience their first signs or symptoms between ages 20 and 40.
Multiple sclerosis is unpredictable and varies in severity. In some people, multiple sclerosis is a mild illness, but it can lead to permanent disability in others.