[Factors influencing return to vocational activity following healed lesion of the lower extremities].

The factors involved in determining return to work following damage to the lower limbs were analyzed, on the basis of 519 patients (up to age 60) treated at the rehabilitation center of Konstancin, Poland. Correlations were determined between the results obtained in functional testing of pain complaints, movement range, muscle strength, locomotion and general fitness, and the patients' adjustment relative to gainful activity. It was found that the functional rehabilitation therapy carried out had in the majority of patients been appropriate in achieving the goals of treatment, i.e. patients' fitness, their range of movement and locomotion had been affected positively, and the occurrence of pain been reduced. The majority of patients had thus been enabled to return to work. Unsatisfactory outcomes, in the authors' opinion, have to do with severity/extent of lesion or articular fracture involving torsion, as well as with neglect of early-enough functional rehabilitation therapy, associated with a still frequently encountered, mistaken belief that rehabilitation constitutes the last stage in the post-traumatic treatment process.