Heal Fast from Orthopedic Elbow Surgery

Many people who hear about orthopedic surgery do so through the sports section. Athletes are some of the most common patients for orthopedic surgery, which is one reason the field is also known as sports medicine.

From time to time, it is useful to highlight the stories of professional athletes and the surgical procedures they undergo, not least because their recovery times can be instructive. Consider the case of Yankees ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who recently underwent orthopedic elbow surgery to remove a bone spur.

There is no such thing as instant recovery when it comes to elbow surgery, but that doesn’t mean a prognosis can’t be excellent. As this report says:

Tanaka will have time to recover and be ready for spring training. Feinsand noted the recovery time is only expected to be six weeks (before rehab), so Tanaka should be able to get back to 100 percent before next season.

If you’re suffering from chronic elbow pain in San Diego or the surrounding area, please contact the orthopedic surgeons at AOSM today. We’ll have you back to 100% in no time.

New Insights on Knee Pain

Knee pain is often a persistent nuisance, but for some people, it’s devastating. Because our knees drive nearly every motion we make while standing, chronic pain in this joint can have lasting and systemic effects on everything we do.

For many years, the conventional wisdom held that knee pain should be treated at the source – namely, the knee. But a new study recently found that knee pain can be relieved by focusing “upstream” as well, on the hip, thereby strengthening the entire leg as a system:

British and Australian scientists analyzed 14 previous studies of people with patellofemoral pain, the official name for the ache in the front of the knee that strikes many runners. Participants whose programs included moves to build strength, endurance, and activation in the muscles around the hip had less knee pain and improved joint function when compared with those whose therapy focused on the quadriceps muscles alone.

It is an interesting finding that underscores the simple fact that our bodies are full of interdependent pieces, and that no orthopedic issue ever arises in a vacuum. My San Diego orthopedic practice offers effective therapy, treatment and surgery for chronic knee pain, and takes care to treat entire patients young and old.

Want to learn more? Contact the orthopedic surgeons today.