Training and competing puts a lot of physical stress on your body as an athlete. This is due to the repetitive movements needed during training as you work on perfecting your skills. Your injury risks are also high during competition due to increased chances of collisions. For these reasons, sports medicine is crucial to safeguard your health and help you recover or prevent sports injuries.
Sports medicine is simply a medical field that focuses on preventing and treating injuries related to sporting activities. You can get highly customized sports medicine services at Upper Extremity Specialists in La Jolla and Chula Vista to enjoy participating in your sports. Christopher Downing, MD, and Daniel Brereton DO have outstanding expertise in sports medicine services and can help you enhance your performance.
Common Sports Injuries Requiring Sports Medicine
Please understand that whether you are a professional, student-athlete, or a participant on your company team, you are prone to acute injuries and other problems related to repetitive use. Some of these issues include:
- Fractures
- Bursitis
- Tendonitis
- Ligament tears
- Muscle Tears
- Sprains and Tears
Treatment Options
Shoulder Treatment Options
Both nonoperative and surgical procedures can be used to treat shoulder injuries depending on the severity of the conditions. the different options include:
- Full and partial shoulder replacement
- Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair
- Medications
- Reparative orthopedics
- Immobilization and compression
- Anti-inflammatory injections
- Bone-preserving shoulder arthroplasty
Elbow Injuries Treatments
For the different conditions affecting the elbow such as tennis elbow, bursitis, golfer’s elbow, cubital tunnel syndrome, dislocations, fractures, and osteoarthritis, the following procedures are available:
- Nonoperative treatments such as rest, brace immobilization, and anti-inflammatory injections.
- Reparative therapies such as lipoaspirate mesenchymal stromal cells and platelet-rich plasma.
- Less invasive procedures such as arthroscopy and endoscopic cubital tunnel release.
- Surgery when conventional options are not effective
- Elbow joint replacement for severe elbow arthritis
Wrist and Hand Injuries Treatments
For all types of wrist and hand injuries, physical therapy, bracing, compression, and anti-inflammatory injection techniques can be applied.
Benefits You Can Enjoy for Engaging a Sports Medicine Specialist
Due to the comprehensive approach taken in sports medicine, you can gain the following benefits:
Education and Nutrition
You get to be taught and guided on how to treat your body to keep it healthy and adequately fuel it through a proper diet to improve performance. Dietary focus depends on your sport, general health, and athletic goals.
Preventative Care
Through sports medicine, you can learn how you can properly train your body and minimize the risk of injuries. This can include crafting workouts depending on your needs, strengthening exercises and stretches, wellness treatments, and more. As a result, your body is supported against any potential injury.
Rehabilitation
This is a vital component of sports medicine that can help you get back to the game quickly. The goal of rehabilitation is to help any affected area to heal correctly and, at the same time, improve your range of motion and flexibility as quickly as possible.
Rehabilitation can involve massage therapy, physical therapy, strength and conditioning, exercises, and orthopedic surgery.
Sports medicine can address a comprehensive range of issues that results in improved performance. Therefore, like an athlete at any level, you need this comprehensive approach to up your game. Don’t hesitate to contact your sports medicine specialist at Upper Extremity Specialists to learn more about how you can benefit from the practice.
