Pete S. Deol, D.O.'s Blog
Ankle Injuries Take Time to Heal - Even If You're Brett Favre
Recently Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Brett Favre was injured in a game against the rivial Green Bay Packers when GB linebacker Brad Jones tackled Favre's legs on a play. The injury Favre sustained to his ankle is only one in a series of injuries that have plagued him during his career. Just last year he underwent arthroscopic ankle surgery to remove loose bone fragments, bone spurs and scar tissue from his ankle due to chronic ankle pain. Favre's recent injury involves a stress fracture in the ankle with an associated "avulsion fracture" from his calcaneus (a piece of his heel bone pulled off by a tendon or ligament). Fortunately these injuries are often treated without surgery but can often take weeks to recover from due to pain, swelling and inflammation. In order for Favre to be able to successfully return to play, his physicians and trainers will need to ensure that he regains full motion & strength in the ankle to avoid further injury.
Shin Splints
It’s Spring and your running shoes are ready to be dusted off to hit the trails and road. But beware!!! Your nice, long run may result in the development of shin splints.The term “shin splints” refers to pain and tenderness along the crest of the shin bone or tibia. It’s what doctors clinically refer to as medial tibial stress syndrome. So what causes them?
Abrupt changes in the intensity or duration of physical activity, such as with a running program, are the most common cause. Repetitive activity, without proper conditioning, can result in inflammation of the muscles and tendons where they attach to the bone. This generally reflects an underlying imbalance in the musculature along the front and back of the leg.
Here are some easy home treatments that can alleviate you pain and get you back on the road:
• The use of anti-inflammatory medications, ice and compressive wraps will alleviate some of your immediate symptoms
• Switching to other conditioning exercises and cross-training can help to avoid re-injury
• Be sure to warm up appropriately. Stretching after exercising is just as important as stretching before.
• Allow yourself several weeks of rest from strenuous exercise before returning to activity
• When you return to strenuous exercise, make sure to start at a lower intensity and for a shorter duration of time. Then work your way back up.
• Immediately stop exercising if you feel pain after returning to exercise.
When should you see your doctor? If your pain does not improve after attempting to treat it with the above suggestions, this may be a sign of something larger. Sometimes the pain associated with shin splints may represent a stress fracture, tendinitis or other issues. If you have any questions or concerns about your leg pain, schedule an appointment with your doctor today.
Does ankle sprain surgery affect long term performance?
As more and more children and young adults become involved in athletics and sports, there is an increased incidence of injuries to the foot and ankle. One of the most common injuries that I see is sprains of the ankle. Although most people completely recover from these injuries, those that fail to improve may be due to an injury of the cartilage within the ankle.When these athletes with cartilage injuries don’t get better, sometimes surgery is necessary. A natural concern of patients and their families is whether these ankles treated with surgery will ever completely recover and will they become arthritic later in life. These questions lead me to examine how these young patients treated with arthroscopic surgery of the ankle do long-term.
Over the past couple years, I’ve gathered and examined data on over 140 patients of all ages treated surgically for cartilage injuries to the ankle. I found that although most patients do very well after surgery, younger patients under the age of 20 years did the best! Most importantly, there was no evidence of arthritis in these younger patients even years after surgery.
This data has generated a great deal of interest within the orthopedic community and has recently been presented at 3 national and international meetings. It is currently planned for publication in a national orthopedic surgery journal later this year.
The information on this site is purely informational and may not pertain to your specific ailment. It should not be taken in lieu of a doctor's advice!
