Summer is right around the corner and for sports that rely on good weather it means the beginning of the season. Former Kansas tennis player Ksenia Bukina was plagued with an arm injury that forced her to miss all but five events. She is not alone though; more than 205 out of every 1,000 student-athletes will be injured during the season according to a 2004-2005 NCAA report.
Professor David Carr teaches Heath, Sport and Exercise Science the University of Kansas and believes that working out with a strength training and flexibility program can prevent most injuries. He recommends warming up and cooling down every time someone takes part in any athletic event. Carr also stressed the importance of knowing your own physical limitations.
“People will say, ‘doc it hurts to do this,’” said Carr who usually responds with, “then don’t do it.”
He attributed many injuries he sees to over use. If the injury gets too severe sometimes surgery is an option, and that is where the public is reaping the rewards of new technologies.
Doctor Larry Magee is the KU team physician and said that most of the time problems can be solved without surgery. He uses a variety of cortisone injections, deep massage and ultrasound treatment to try to heal injuries and prevent surgery. But if these conservative measures are unsuccessful, Dr. Magee will turn to orthopedic surgery.
“The difference between now and 10 years ago is more and more surgeries are being done arthroscopically,” Dr. Magee said. Arthroscopy allows a surgeon to look into the human body without “opening up” the joint they are operating on. He explained that the instrument has been around for about 20 years. Professor Carr says implants are changing arthroscopic surgery.
“I don’t know that the technologies have changed, rather it’s the things they use,” Carr said. Carr explained that physicians now have implants that allow them to be even more minimally invasive.
Tosa Medical is at the forefront of creating new implants surgeons can use to help repair damage with outpatient surgery according to Mark Cairns, a sales representative for Tosa. Cairns said Tosa has been developing this technology for the last two to three years and they are finally seeing wider usage.
One such product allows a doctor to place a suture into the shoulder blade to fix rotator cuff damage without having to cut off cartilage inside the rotator cuff. Another popular rotator cuff treatment is the use of the Bio-Corkscrew. It uses a bioabsorbable suture anchor that the body absorbs over time to prevent unwanted tension says Cairns.
Cairns said the main focus of outpatient orthopedic surgeries was to cut back on pain and increase the range of motion a person retains post-operation. He said recovery would still take time anytime an operation is performed.
“Just because it’s done with a scope doesn’t mean less (recovery) time, just less pain,” he said.
Dr. Magee said recovery time from orthopedic surgery usually averages between two to eight weeks depending on what the operation involved and whether or not the patient re-aggravated the injury during recovery time. Dr. Magee, professor Carr and Cairns agreed that a patient’s range of motion and strength could be regained after orthopedic surgery.