Following injury and subsequent orthopedic surgery, return to physical function and prevention of debilitating muscle and bone loss are common clinical concerns. These concerns stem from several factors including inflammatory/ pro-atrophy responses related to surgery as well as inactivity/unloading during the initial post-operative recovery period.  As a result, novel therapies designed to mitigate the negative consequences of disuse following surgery are of high interest to clinicians within a number of orthopedic subspecialties.  Blood flow restriction (BFR) therapy has become increasingly utilized in recent years in sport and military rehabilitation settings.  The therapy involves partially restricting arterial blood flow (50-80% occlusion) to an injured limb via a specialized cuff while performing rehabilitation exercises using low resistance loads (<20-30% maximal strength). The use of blood flow restriction (BFR) within rehabilitation is rapidly increasing as further research is performed elucidating purported benefits such as improved muscular strength and size, neuromuscular control, decreased pain, increased bone mineral density, and accelerated return to activity. Interestingly, these benefits are not isolated to structures distal to the occlusive stimulus.  This presentation will focus on current evidence and ongoing hypotheses regarding physiologic responses to BFR, current clinical applications, distal and proximal responses to BFR therapy, potential practical applications for rehabilitation and injury prevention, and directions for future research. 

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About Dr. Lambert:

Bradley Lambert is the Human Subjects Research Director in the department of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital. He received his PhD from Texas A&M University in Kinesiology and was a postdoctoral fellow in Nutrition and Metabolism at UTMB. Throughout my research career, my focus has continuously been on researching novel approaches to improving functionality, health, and quality of life in general, clinical, aging and athletic populations. My areas of expertise include applied exercise physiology, orthopedics, skeletal muscle metabolism, chronic exercise training interventions, amino acid metabolism, patient rehabilitation, biomechanics, biostatistics, and patient outcomes research. It is my personal objective to utilize basic and applied investigative models to optimize the translational benefits of human research.