Articles & Updates
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
The main stabilizing ligament of the knee is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It is centrally located in the knee joint, and is attached on the back side of the thigh bone (femur) and spans toward the front of the shin bone (tibia). Hence, it prevents the shin bone from shifting forward in relation to the thigh, especially when the knee is bent. It also prevents some external rotation of the shin bone, since it attaches from outside of the thigh bone toward the inside of the shin. When this ligament is torn or deficient, the knee will periodically feel as if it is actually dislocating or shifting abnormally.
Ankle Sprains: Is it just a sprain?
The most common sports injury. But until you have had one, you do not realize how serious the injury can be. We see college and professional athletes get ankle sprains and sometimes come back to play the very next week. Hence, ankle sprains must not be that serious.
Foot Problems: An ounce of prevention goes a long way
Our feet were designed for muddy, grassy grounds. If you look at foot designs of many animals, you will see that animals designed to be on rocky, hard terrains have hooves, not soft fleshy feet like ours. This simple fact of biology should help people to understand what leads to many of our most common foot ailments.
Conditioning in Athletics
The best advice an Orthopedic Surgeon or Sports Specialist can give a young athlete would be how to prevent injury in the first place. Unfortunately, we only end up in the specialist's office after an injury. Therefore, the information does not always get out to those who need it most.
Don't Throw Out Your Shoulder
Athletes that use a throwing motion are particularly susceptible to shoulder injuries. This includes the obvious baseball and softball throwers, but also tennis players and volleyball players. The tennis serve and overhead slam are mechanically very similar to throwing. In volleyball, the spike and overhead serve also use the same mechanics.
Meniscal Tears in the Knee
In the knee the meniscus is the load-bearing cartilage ring. They are akin to tires on your car. There are two in each knee, one on the medial side of the joint (inside aspect of the knee) and one on the lateral side of the knee (outside aspect of the knee). They are C-shaped and very rubbery. These meniscal cushions are very important to the knee for distribution of weight forces through the joint, to reduce the stress on the articular cartilage (cartilage on the end of the bones). Injury to the meniscus has been shown to predispose to early arthritis in the joint.
Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease: It sure sounds bad
Parents of athletic kids entering teenage years are sure to have heard of this. Because of its name and anatomical location, it strikes fear into some. Fortunately, it’s not as bad as the name may sound. The prognosis is good, so do not let the name scare you.
Elbow Pain in the Young Athlete
The elbow is the most common site of injury in young baseball players, and many of these injuries are preventable. Throwing puts significant tension forces on the inside of the elbow and compression forces on the outside of the elbow, leading to a number of conditions that may include little leaguer's elbow. Other sports that involve a throwing motion are subject to the same problems, such as tennis and volleyball.
Sever's Disease: Most common foot pain problem in adolescents
Heel pain is a common problem for young athletes. It is more common in boys, but becoming common in young girls as well, as similar sports are being played equally as often. It frequently develops in pre-adolescence, about 9-10 years old. The pain is usually sports and activity specific. Typically it occurs in sports with heel cleats. Most of the time there is no pain with normal walking in comfortable tennis shoes.
Shoulder Injuries: Dislocations versus Separations
In the young athlete, shoulder injuries can be quite serious. Injuries can run the gambit, from simple strains (an injury to a muscle or tendon), sprains (an injury to a ligament), separations ( an injury to the acromioclavicular joint), dislocations ( an injury to the ball-in-socket, or glenohumeral joint), or fractures (broken bones). In this article I will clarify the shoulder separation and dislocation injuries, as these two often get mixed up.
Sports Bracing: Money Well Spent?
Sports bracing is a multi-billion dollar industry. We are inundated with sports bracing options. As we progress in our athletic endeavors, at some point bracing and/or taping will be thrust upon us. Usually a multitude of questions will ensue. Do the braces really work? Will it help my performance? Will it prevent injury? Will it strengthen my extremity? Should I do it, because it appears everyone else is? Are there other options? As with most medical issues the answers to these questions, depend on whom you're asking them. Is it your coach, your teammate, your trainer, your doctor, a brace company representative, or a salesman at the local sporting goods store? The answers will likely be different from each of these sources.
Stress Fractures
Fracture in medical terms means the breaking or cracking of a bone. Typical fractures, or broken bones, occur from a violent force placed on the bone in an atypical, or unexpected, manner. Immediate pain and delayed swelling and bruising usually ensue. The episode that produces the fracture is always memorable and recognizable. Usually a trip to the emergency room or doctor is automatic.
