Tilt Table Protocol For Physical Therapy

The physical therapist secures the safety straps around the patient then slowly elevates the table putting the patient into a standing position and monitoring her blood pressure and heart rate throughout the treatment.

Tilt table protocol for physical therapy.

Introduction a padded table with a top capable of being rotated on its transverse axis so that a patient lying on it can be brought into the erect position. The supine position is again assumed for five minutes re equilibration. Isoprenaline is then infused at a rate of 1 μg min for five minutes supine then five minutes at 70 tilt. In a tilt table test you lie on a table that adjusts your body position from horizontal to vertical to simulate standing up.

Some tilt tables are designed to tilt a few degrees below horizontal while others go from a 90 degree angle to a completely flat 180 degree horizontal position. A tilt table test is used to evaluate the cause of unexplained fainting. However with repeated use improvement in upright tolerance was observed. The protocol involved a stepwise process to gradually raise the subject into a standing position on the tilt table platform at 10 intervals from 60 to 90.

The patient remains supine for 20 minutes and is then tilted to 70 for five minutes. A clinical protocol for the use of the tilt table was developed and applied to subjects in the acute phase following a stroke. The test can tell your doctor if faulty brain signals are causing low blood pressure.