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Sports Medicine – How Your Orthopedic Surgeon Can Help

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Many of us that play regular sport or only get time to play tennis on weekends or take a leisurely jog can find ourselves a little stiff and sore at times. This general pain may be something relatively insignificant such as over reaching or extending, perhaps you landed irregularly, or maybe you didn’t warm up sufficiently prior to playing. The difference between pain such as this and pain that really must be followed up by your Orthopedic Surgeon is if this sort of pain lingers for more than a few days, or if it has come on suddenly from an unknown cause.

Your Orthopedic Surgeon specializes in Sports Medicine injuries and is able to diagnose and treat injuries or issues specific to the musculoskeletal system. This means that any joint, bone, muscle, tendon, ligament or nerve within the human body can be addressed by your Orthopedic professional. Some of the more common sports injuries can be extremely painful if not treated swiftly. Consulting with your Orthopedic Doctor can enable you to have your injury diagnosed and treated as well as determining a course of action for pain management.

The action of running can pose many problems to the athlete. This activity can be a particularly punishing exercise for the human body and it is not at all unusual to experience injury. Elite athletes are not the only ones that are susceptible to the wide range of running injuries, occasional joggers can also suffer the same debilitating effects from damage to the hips, thighs and legs, knees and ankles just as the more dedicated runner. For example; injuries to the hip and thigh can include hip bursitis. This is an inflammation of the bursa. Bursa allows muscles and tendons to slip easily over bone. Pain with hip movement can be a symptom of Bursitis, and treatment of this injury is often quite effective. Pulled hamstring muscles as well as illiotibial (IT) band syndrome are also very commonplace injuries as is snapping hip syndrome where the IT band snaps over the thigh, or the deep hips flexor snaps over the front of the hip joint as well as tears of the labrum or cartilage surrounding the hip socket.

Of course, one can imagine the pounding that the knees, legs and ankles endure can also produce a range of injuries. Stress fractures, exercise induced compartment syndrome (where pain is evident over the front of the leg with exercise and activity), as well as cruciate ligament damage, sprains, strains and Achilles tendonitis injuries are all on the list of “most likely injuries” for the runner. The good news is that many of these issues respond very well to treatment and in some cases surgery. Consulting with an Orthopedic Surgeon can prove extremely beneficial if done so soon after the injury has ocurred. Sports medicine today offers a wide range of treatment options and advances in injury diagnosis, treatment, management, rehabilitation and injury prevention. If you have pain that gets worse when the limb or joint is used, pain at night or while resting as well as ongoing soreness or inflammation then seeking a consultation with an Orthopedic surgeon is highly advised.

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