What Can a Sports Medicine Physician Treat?

A sports medicine doctor treats a wide range of orthopedic injuries sustained while playing sports or engaging in moderate to strenuous physical activity. This type of injury can also happen while doing everyday activities and pulling or twisting a joint or muscle the wrong way.

If you lead a fairly active lifestyle and you have injured yourself, a sports medicine physician can diagnose and treat the condition and help prevent its recurrence. These doctors specialize in treating musculoskeletal injuries and chronic pain, including arthritis.

Injuries Frequently Treated by Sports Doctors

Let’s talk about the most common injuries that patients see a sports medicine doctor for:

Sprains and Strains

Sprained ankles and strained hamstrings are very common injuries. A sprain is a torn or injured ligament connecting two bones, whereas a strain is a torn or injured tendon or muscle.

Tired or deconditioned muscles in the legs can cause a strained hamstring. This creates intense pain in the back of the thigh (upper leg), usually as a result of a pulled muscle. This is very common among athletes who play football, soccer, or basketball.

Ankle sprains can happen to anyone at any age, because the ankle supports the weight of your body and can be injured due to something as small as a misstep. Sprains can happen to any joint in the body, but they tend to occur most frequently in the joints that are most susceptible to repeated force or sudden impact – such as the knees and ankles.

Joint Instability

If a sprained ankle or other injured joint failed to heal properly, this can lead to further injury due to the instability of the joint. Shoulder instability is also quite common, and this is caused by the shoulder ligaments becoming so stretched out that the ball of the shoulder joint moves from the socket.

This can happen from playing tennis, baseball, basketball, volleyball, or any repetitive motion of the arm or shoulder. Your sports physician will give you a full evaluation and proper treatment.

Torn Ligaments

The tissues that connect your bones to your other bones are called ligaments. They are vital to keeping a joint stable, and they are prone to tearing – either partially or fully. A partial tear usually doesn’t require surgery, because it can repair itself naturally over time; a complete ligament tear, however, usually requires surgery because the severed ends will not heal back together naturally.

For knee injuries, a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) can happen easily due to sudden movements, bad landings, or a direct blow to the knee. These ligaments cross each other in an “X” shape, with the ACL crossing in front of the PCL – both connecting the thighbone (femur) to the shinbone (tibia). The ACL’s location in the front makes it particularly vulnerable to injury.

Experienced Sports Medicine Physician in Greater St. Louis

A sports medicine physician can treat these injuries and more. Our sports medicine team at Advanced Bone & Joint provides comprehensive orthopedic care to patients with specialized needs, such as athletes or anyone who leads an active lifestyle. We also diagnose and treat workplace injuries.

For highly individualized care and personal attention from sports medicine physicians, schedule an appointment with us at Advanced Bone & Joint by calling us today at (636) 229-4222 or request an appointment via our online form now. We look forward to seeing you!