Rehabilitation

rehabilitation: see physical therapy.

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rehabilitation [‚rē·ə‚bil·ə′tā·shən]

(medicine)

The restoration to a disabled individual of maximum independence commensurate with his limitations by developing his residual capacity.

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rehabilitation

The process of returning a building to its original state of utility by means of repair or alteration.

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Rehabilitation 

(1) Restoration of rights.

(2) In medicine, medical, pedagogical, occupational, and legal measures that aim to restore the health and work capacity of individuals with physical and mental limitations resulting from disease or injury. Persons undergoing rehabilitation include those suffering from some diseases of the internal organs, from congenital and acquired diseases of the musculoskeletal system, from the sequelae of severe injuries, and from mental diseases. Rehabilitation is of particular importance for children suffering from mental retardation or from defects in hearing, speech, or vision.

Rehabilitation includes such therapeutic measures as occupational and exercise therapy, sports, electrotherapy, mud therapy, and massage. These procedures are carried out in rehabilitation departments and centers in large hospitals and in institutes of traumatology, psychiatry, and cardiology. Other rehabilitative measures develop basic skills needed by patients for self-sufficiency (social and everyday rehabilitation) and train them for work (occupational and industrial rehabilitation).