Physiotherapy glossary
Plain-language definitions for terms patients ask us about most. Trilingual on every entry.
- ACL injury
- Tear of the anterior cruciate ligament inside the knee. Common in pivoting sports — football, badminton, basketball. Often requires surgical reconstruction plus structured rehab.
- Frozen shoulder
- Adhesive capsulitis — progressive shoulder stiffness with marked loss of range, especially external rotation. Three-phase course: freezing, frozen, thawing.
- House-Brackmann grading
- A standardised six-grade scale (HB I to HB VI) for facial-nerve weakness. Used in Bell's palsy and other facial-nerve injuries to track recovery and guide management.
- Red flags
- Specific symptoms (sudden weakness, bowel/bladder change, saddle numbness, severe night pain, chest pain) that mean you go to A&E at HTJ first, not a physio session.
- Sciatica
- Pain that radiates from the lower back or buttock down the leg along the path of the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is a symptom, not a diagnosis — the nerve is being irritated somewhere along its course.
- SWAP test
- Editorial test we apply to every page: replace the city or condition name. If the page still makes sense, it's too generic and gets rewritten with local detail.
- Tension-type headache
- The most common headache type. Bilateral, pressing or tightening, mild to moderate. In desk workers it's often a neck-driven problem dressed as a head problem.
Not sure which physio fits your case?
Message us on WhatsApp with your condition and postcode — we'll point you to a physio in Seremban or Nilai that matches.