Denver Orthopedic Surgeons Treat Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries

Lacrosse is similar to hockey, where each team aims to have the highest number of goals. Due to this, it involves plenty of repetitive motions and strenuous movements, of which the athletes’ knees bear the most brunt. Thus, one of the most common lacrosse-related injuries is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear, which may require treatment from Denver orthopedic surgeons.

To understand the severity of this injury—referred to as a “life-altering injury” by a former physician of the U.S. lacrosse team—players must first understand the knee anatomy. ACL is a major ligament of the knee which is primarily responsible for stabilizing the knee after walking, bending, or climbing. However, in lacrosse, where there are a great deal of turning and planting motions, the ACL becomes highly vulnerable.

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Common Household Injuries during Winter

Over 250 people a day were hurt between November 1 and end of December in 2012 due to holiday accidents. Almost a third of these accidents involved victims falling off ladders. Many other victims injured their necks or backs.

It pays to know the common winter injuries so you will know what to avoid. Here are some of them:

• You could break your wrist, hand, ankle, or other bone in the body if you fall off a ladder while trying to remove snow from a roof. It is also possible to tear a meniscus in the knee or dislocate a joint such as a shoulder or hip bone.
• You could herniate a disc or strain a neck or back muscle while shoveling snow from the driveway or the sidewalk.
• Planning to remove snow from your property quickly? This increased activity may lead to an impingement in the shoulder or acute tendinitis in the knee.

Household safety should always be a major consideration during the cold season. If you do end up with an injury during the winter, don’t allow the condition to worsen. Visit a reputable orthopedic center as soon as possible so a doctor can evaluate your injury and recommend the appropriate treatment.

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Controlling Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease of the immune system that inflames the joints of the body. If you have been diagnosed with RA recently, it’s important to gain the upper hand over the disease as soon as you can. If left untreated, RA can affect your ability to work, impact your quality of life, and increase your risk for heart disease

RA is a chronic disease, meaning it can’t be cured. It is the most common autoimmune disease affecting the joints— anyone can get it, but it’s more prominent in middle-age patients. In the U.S. the risk of developing RA is 3.6 percent in women and 1.7 percent in men.

Although there is no cure for RA, its impact can be significantly reduced through early diagnosis and effective treatments. Many drug therapies are now available to treat the disease, so the challenge is finding the one that’s right for you. To begin a drug therapy treatment, you should first talk to a rheumatologist who can design a treatment plan based on his physical evaluation and your body’s response to medication.

Surgery is another way to relieve RA symptoms. Surgery for RA is mainly performed to improve function of severely deformed joints that don’t respond to drug or physical therapy. Surgeries for people who have severe RA include arthroscopy, synovectomy, arthroplasty, cervical spine fusion, and resection of metatarsal heads.

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Orthopedic Treatment for a Torn Meniscus

It happened so fast. You were running down the court and all you did was stop. Suddenly, you’re on the floor with a sharp pain in your knee. Unfortunately, you may have torn your meniscus.

The meniscus is a small C-shaped piece of cartilage in your knee that keeps the entire knee stable and prevents your knee bones from grinding against each other. Although quite sturdy, the meniscus can be torn by sudden stops, deep squats, and quick pivots.

A meniscus tear can be classified into three categories: partial, moderate, and severe. Depending on the severity of the tear, an orthopedic surgeon can determine if there is a need for surgery or if the injury can heal by itself.

Common symptoms people begin to feel after tearing their meniscus include pain and swelling. For severe meniscus tears, people report feeling knee instability, manifesting as a popping or locking of the knee, or its suddenly “wobbling” and giving way.

Meniscus tears are often mistaken for ACL tears, another type of knee injury, as both injuries tend to happen at the same time. In some cases, both the meniscus and ACL can be torn by the same action. Thus, people who have suffered a suspected knee injury should be brought to an experienced orthopedic surgeon for accurate diagnosis and immediate treatment.

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What to Do about a Wrist Sprain or Strain

Wrist strains and sprains are common injuries that people often get mixed up. This is understandable since both involve the overstretching or tearing of a certain body tissue. The main difference is that sprains involve ligaments that connect one bone to another while strains involve the muscles and tendons that are attached to bones.

If you have strained or sprained your wrist, you may experience swelling, a feeling of popping or tearing, pain at the affected area, and bruising. Typically, such injuries can be treated with the RICE treatment (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation). However, if pain and swelling continue beyond 48 hours, you'll need to have your injury checked by a doctor.

If after examination, the doctor says that the injury is moderate, this means there's a partial tearing of the ligaments. You'll likely be fitted with a cast or splint to allow the joint to heal and prevent continued irritation. On the other hand, if the doctor says the injury is severe, that means a ligament or muscle has been completely torn. If such is the case, medical or surgical care will be required.

After your treatment, your doctor may require you to start graded strengthening exercises for your wrist, so don't be surprised if he refers you to a physical therapist. This is simply meant to help you regain full use of your wrist and prevent further injury.

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Most Common Orthopedic Problems in Children

Pediatric orthopedics is a branch of orthopedics that deals with children's orthopedic issues. Orthopedic treatment in children is very different from that of adults, and there are some orthopedic conditions that usually occur in children.

Pigeon Toes

Pigeon toes is a condition wherein the child's toes are inward when he is walking. This is often connected to the child's position while in the womb of his mother. The condition is usually corrected by doctors through stretching exercises, special footwear, or physical therapy. In cases where there is a rigid deformity, it is treated with a cast.

Clubfeet

Children who are born with clubfeet have short tendons on the inside and back of their feet. This results in the toes being pulled down and inwards. Orthopedic surgery is done to babies with clubfeet right after the baby is born. To correct the problem, the surgeon will manipulate the feet into its right position and will cast it weekly.

Toe Walking

Toe Walking is very common among children who are still learning to walk. However, when the children is already beyond 2 years old and is still toe walking, then it should be corrected by a pediatric orthopedic doctor. Continued toe walking is sometimes connected with cerebral palsy and other nervous system problems. It is sometimes treated by casting the calf and ankle for up to six weeks.

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Orthopedic Surgery and Cerebral Palsy

Orthopedic surgery is done to treat tight muscles and spasticity that are connected to cerebral palsy. In this procedure, a cut is made on the skin where the affected muscle is located, and parts of this muscle are slit so that the tightness is released.

This procedure is intended to remedy the problems related to cerebral palsy. The goals of this surgery are: to loosen muscles that make the hips turn to increase hip movement, loosen the muscles at the back of the thigh so that the muscles will be able to control the tension on the thigh and knee, and to loosen the tendon at the back of the ankle to provide the child with a flatter foot, allowing him to walk properly.

When planning surgery for your child, doctors may postpone it until the child is older than 2. By this time, the doctor is able to release more tight muscles during the surgery than releasing only one. This will lessen the chances of the procedure having to be performed again.

However, these corrections may sometimes be temporary, since while the person is growing, the muscles may become tighter and can cause contractures. Risks of bleeding, infection, and need for further surgery may also be high when it is done. So it is always best that you are 100 percent sure of your decision before putting your child through any surgery.

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What You Need to Know about Arthroscopy

Arthroscopy is one of the first procedures you'll need from your orthopedic surgeon. Essentially, it is a minimally invasive surgical procedure necessary to diagnose problems in the musculoskeletal system. This is accomplished by using a tube-like viewing instrument referred to as the arthroscope.

In this procedure, small incisions are made in the affected area from which pencil-sized instruments are inserted to view the ligaments inside the joint. Light is transmitted through fiber optics in the tube to magnify the view, while the other end of the athroscope is attached to a video monitor where the image data is transmitted for the doctor's analysis.

Almost any orthopedic patient can be a candidate for arthroscopy procedure, particularly those with varying symptoms in the muscle or joints. The procedure can detect tears in one's rotator cuffs in the shoulder joint or meniscal tears in the knee, as well as reveal signs of carpal tunnel syndrome and shoulder impingement.

You can recover from an arthroscopy procedure in a matter of days and return to your normal activities in no time at all. Ask your orthopedic professional on how to change the dressing on your incision so that you can maintain it and facilitate proper healing at home.

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How Bones Heal Themselves From Fractures

Although bones may seem like simple hard structures that frame the body, they are actually very complex parts of the human anatomy that continue to change as man grows older. Bones are made of different tissues and mineral deposits. Inside the bones are marrows where fat is stored and red blood cells are produced.

Broken bones are usually tended, specifically by an orthopedic doctor, but bones are able to repair themselves most of the time. Unless cases are severe, small fractures could be fixed by the body through four phases.

When bone is broken, the blood vessels inside are broken, too. Blood that escapes from the bone then starts to clot to keep the bones together as they are mended, and tiny blood vessels start to develop to continue the needed supply of fresh blood which fuel the healing process.

The second phase begins when a tougher tissue is developed on the fracture to form a soft callus. Collagen, a protein that helps in bone tissue development, is produced in order to further strengthen the soft callus which would hold the fractured bones together.

The production of bone cells marks the third stage. These cells develop and transform the callus into a bone callus to act as a shell during the final stage of healing.

Bones, however, have limited healing capabilities. Where fractures are severe, orthopedic doctors need to be consulted to commence the treatment process in replacing or healing the bones to keep the part whole once again. 

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