Sports Medicine
Orthopaedic sports medicine is the medical speciality concerned with the investigation, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of injuries due to athletic activity. It is essentially a combination of surgical and non-surgical orthopaedic care (care for the bones, muscles and joints) and care for other medical conditions, which can be brought on by-or complicated by - active participation in sports, such as asthma, diabetes or high blood pressure.
Sports injuries
There are many ways to classify sports injuries based on the time taken for the tissues to become injured, tissue type affected, severity of the injury, and which injury the individual presents with.
Common sports injuries that can result in seeing a sports medicine specialist are knee and shoulder injuries, fractures, ankle sprains, concussions, cartilage injuries, muscle tears, ligament or tendon injury, fracture in the wrist, scapula, clavicle or ankle, repetitive/overuse injuries, tennis/golfers elbow, runners’ knee, achilles tendonitis, rotator cuff injury, ACL reconstruction surgery, revision of failed ACL reconstruction surgery, SLAP repair and patellofemoral pain syndrome.
Sports injuries treatments
Sports medicine treatment plans include a suite of non-surgical procedures as well as the use of the latest sports medicine equipment. Sports medicine doctors incorporate a non-operative approach towards treating the sports injury, while orthopaedic surgeons develop a conservative non-operative plan before resorting to performing an operation. Orthopaedic surgeons are supported by medical specialists in physiotherapy and rehabilitation, chiropractic and acupuncture within the clinic.
The surgical treatment of sport injuries might include anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, arthroscopy of knees, shoulders and ankles biceps, tenodesis surgery, cartilage restoration, fracture repair (surgical and non=surgical), labral repair, platelet rich plasma therapy, rotator cuff repair, shoulder instability surgery and tendon repair.
