SPORTS MEDICINE BLOG

Q. When should a sports injury be rested?
A. An athlete must first realize that rest is bad and activity is good after an injury. Over 90 percent of athletic injuries involve the ligaments, tendons, and muscles, which become stretched, torn, and weak. Resting injured areas just encourages stagnation of blood and damaged tissue, resulting in increased swelling and scar tissue formation. The longer an athlete restricts movement after an injury, the longer it will take to heal. For each day of non-movement, two days are added to the length of rehabilitation.
Answer by Ross Hauser, M.D.

Q. The MRI says I need surgery
A. An MRI never could, nor can it ever, make the diagnosis of what is causing the athlete's pain and injury. Only a health care clinician can make the diagnosis. MRIs are notoriously inaccurate. People with no pain often exhibit many abnormalities on MRI scans, while people with injuries often show abnormalities that have nothing to do with their pain.

We have a lot of links on MRI's limitations
WHAT SHOULD I DO IF MY MRI SHOWS A HERNIATED DISC?
Never Have Knee Surgery Based on an MRI Diagnosis
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE NOT ORDERING AN MRI?

Answer by Ross Hauser, M.D.

Q: I have a torn labrum in my shoulder
I've had surgery on my supraspinatus and physical/massage therapy. I still seem to have an impingement around the coracoid area of my shoulder, according to my therapist. Would the labrum have anything to do with the impingement. I've ruled out vertebral issues and there is no impingement to the brachial plexus. Thanks for your input.

A. Typically we find that people who have chronic shoulders issues have laxity in their glenohumeral joint.  Because the main shoulder joint is not solid or stable because of ligament injury, the laxity causes a pinching on structures in the joint such as the rotator cuff tendons and glenoid labrum.  These types of injuries and mechanics are easily treated with Prolotherapy.  Athletes only can generate power if their muscles can contract against joints that are very stable.  Joints where there is excessive movement will cause the muscles to loose power.   This is one of the main reasons why athletic performance goes down with injury.  There is no power there even if during weight lifting the muscles have a lot of power.  In other words a pitcher might note that the amount of weight they can lift has stayed the same but when they throw a pitch their speed has decreased from 92 mph to 85.  I can tell you as well as them that in the pros they are going to get rocked if their fast ball is only 85.   Bottom line is you need Prolotherapy.

Answer by Ross Hauser, M.D.
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Q: Will stretching help?
No matter what sport you watch, you will always see athletes on the ground, trying to manipulate their bodies into weird contortions in an effort to stretch out tight muscles. What happens when you overstretch a rubber band? It snaps! More>>>

ANTERIOR CRUCIATE: CASE HISTORY
A young basketball player suffered an Injury when another player fell on the back of her leg. She felt immediate pain, but continued to play the rest of the game. After the game her knee was painful and swollen. She limped around for a few days and it seemed to improve. Each time she played it would swell and hurt to where she needed to be pulled from the game.

She had torn her anterior cruciate ligament. Her knee was drained and she was given NSAIDS, which did nothing to get rid of her pain. She even considered surgery, but came to see me instead. She was in a great hurry to begin the season in 10 weeks, so she received Prolotherapy injections to the anterior cruciate ligaments of the injured knee once each week for five weeks. She allowed it to heal. She returned for the next season and, despite the lack of pre-season training, she went on to be a leading scorer—to her and her teammates’ delight. Prolotherapy does indeed regenerate torn cruciate ligaments and, as a consequence, (In many cases) it allows people to get right back into their sporting activities without some prolonged rehabilitation program that is typically needed for knee ACL injuries.
 

Disclaimer: The physician you are visiting has had the benefit of performing medical examinations and laboratory tests to determine the degree of your symptoms. Important tools in not only prescribing a treatment plan but also in determining your response. If you have concerns about your treatment, please direct your questions to your physician because that is the proper course to take. Prolotherapy may not be effective for every individual and there are risks involved, these risks should be discussed with your physician. Results achieved with some may not be typical of all. Please consult a physician.