Anthony Romero KIN 461/462 Advisor: Dr. Michael Liang Date: June 15, 2010
Introduction
Kinesiology, often known as human kinetics, is the study of principles of anatomy, physiology, and mechanics in relation to human movements. This field of study is a regulated health profession that focuses on physical activity. These principles have drawn me into this field of study and have urged me to specialize in becoming a physical therapist’s assistant as a choice of profession. My internship takes place at Jump Start Physical Therapy in Chino, CA. The topic that I am going to focus on is the rehabilitation of surgically repair torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Five subjects with this type of injury had been followed weekly with their rehabilitation process and have been noted by date by the supervision of Ashik Popat, PTA. My focus in this project is to learn how patients become candidates for surgery and how rehabilitation can return people back to their maximum attainable status. As an intern, I will gain important experiences of understanding how a physical therapist diagnoses and develops a treatment strategy, its purpose and outcome of recovery. I will also learn the importance of the patient’s medical history and how it pertains to the diagnoses. I will observe the physical therapist’s techniques in testing and measuring the patients’ strength, range of motion, balance and coordination, posture, muscle performance, respiration, and motor function. At the end of each patient’s recovery, I will learn how the therapist determines the patients’ ability to continue with their normal life activities or workplace.
Literature The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most important of the four strong