Aquatic therapy is the best prescription for certain types of rehabilitation patients.
For patients who cannot tolerate other types of physical therapy, aquatic therapy can provide important advantages. It can prevent deconditioning, greatly decrease rehabilitation time, and decrease treatment costs. Aquatic therapy can also encourage individuals to choose swimming or water exercise as a lifetime sport for maintaining general health and fitness. When physicians write prescriptions for aquatic therapy, they often don't need to be written for long lengths of stay. In the case of an orthopedic patient with no neurological complications, we are often looking at about three to five sessions of aquatic therapy, with the patient continuing the program on his or her own after that.