Tag: shoulder surgery

When To Use Cortisone For Joint Pain

Cortisone is a miraculous medication, one which can diminish chronic pain and restore a freer range of motion within minutes. But as chronic elbow pain sufferers will tell you, that relief may be short-lived, and can exact its own price over time.

Cortisone is a steroid, which means it can activate some of the body’s most powerful signaling mechanisms for healing. These can be especially effective for joint pain, including elbow pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, and wrist pain, as well as specific diagnoses including bursitis and arthritis.

But cortisone’s power cuts both ways, and may eventually deteriorate the treated joint, by diminishing bone density and thinning soft tissues. Consequently many orthopedic surgeons such as myself use the shots sparingly, and always in concert with a more holistic rehabilitation effort which includes exercise, stretching, and restful recovery.

Bottom line: cortisone is a perfect example of short-term benefit, long-term harm. If you’re looking for a lasting solution to joint pain which won’t hamper your chances for a more lasting recovery, it’s wise to consider lifestyle changes and orthopedic surgery instead.

How Much Does Knee Surgery Cost?

We live in a world where the actual costs of many medical procedures get hidden behind insurance copays and complex accounting. But many patients rightly want to know what their orthopedic surgery procedures actually cost – both for the system, and for their own pocketbooks.

There is little consistency in the fees charged for comparable orthopedic surgeries as you travel from place to place. This damning article includes some eye-opening discrepancies that cannot be explained through property values or practice size alone:

Knee Surgery Costs

At my San Diego orthopedic practice, we make every effort to keep our prices reasonable and to serve our patients well within their means, for knee surgery, shoulder surgery, elbow surgery, and pediatric orthopedic care. To schedule your own rational diagnosis with the best orthopedic surgeon in San Diego, start here.

Making Sense of Orthopedic Pain and Surgery in San Diego

This site was designed to be a comprehensive resource for patients in San Diego looking for the vanguard in orthopedic care. Although as a sports medicine expert I see patients of every kind – including pediatric patients – this site’s layout represents my specialties, which is why they are highlighted in its content and structure:

Click any of those links and you can read more about my holistic approach to working with pain and aiding in rehabilitation. And if you want to know where my training originated or the various positions I am grateful to hold, you can click here.

Still have questions about orthopedic pain and orthopedic surgery in San Diego? Please don’t hesitate to contact my offices here: we always take the time to answer your questions and address all of our patients’ understandable concerns.

Shoulder Surgery and Olympic Dreams

Few American Olympic athletes are more decorated or better known than Kerri Walsh Jennings, one half of a beach volleyball duo that has consistently bested the world’s stars over many years.

Although Ms. Walsh Jennings is a superlative athlete, constant impacts with hard sand and the slow stress of daily conditioning have left their mark: she has undergone shoulder surgery several times to repair cartilage and tendons strained from overuse.

Now the Los Angeles Times has announced that she is set for one more procedure:

The three-time Olympic gold medalist will have surgery Thursday to repair a torn labrum and torn capsule in her right shoulder, she told the Los Angeles Times.

Walsh Jennings will miss the remainder of beach volleyball tour events domestically and abroad in 2015, and is aiming to make it back to competition in mid-March.

Volleyball is a sport where strain falls upon the shoulder almost exclusively; beach volleyball is especially notorious for its hard landings. It is a testament to the effectiveness of modern shoulder surgery that Walsh Jennings continues to compete on the world’s biggest stage, and that she plans to return to that stage once again in the spring.

I treat world class athletes on a regular basis in my offices, and applaud the extraordinary dedication of Olympians like Kerri Walsh Jennings. If you’re looking for the standard in San Diego Shoulder surgery, please contact the AOSM offices today.

Making Sense of Shoulder Surgery in San Diego

Hot on the heels of my last post about knee surgery comes this one, which I hope will dispel some of the confusion about how shoulder surgery works, and when it’s necessary.

As before, I have singled out a great online reference for anyone who’s interested in further reading on this subject. One of the principal advantages of the NIH’s Medline website is that it offers a number of highly focused, granular pieces about every aspect of medical practice and orthopedic surgery. This passage in particular sums up the nature of arthroscopic shoulder surgery for instability:

• If you have a torn labrum, the surgeon will repair it. The labrum is the cartilage that lines the rim of the shoulder joint.
• Ligaments that attach to this area will also be repaired.
• The Bankart lesion is a tear on the labrum in the lower part of the shoulder joint.
• A SLAP lesion involves the labrum and the ligament on the top part of the shoulder joint.

My practice here in San Diego offers cutting edge surgery for shoulder pain, frozen shoulder and instability, We specialize in sports medicine for active adults and juveniles, helping each patient recover and regain the same mobility they once enjoyed.

To speak with an orthopedic surgeon right away, please don’t hesitate to contact the shoulder surgery experts today.

Welcome to the San Diego Orthopedic Surgeon Blog

Welcome to the San Diego orthopedic surgeon blog! This is a place where you can find answers to your questions and concerns, and get all the latest news about events and advances in the field of orthopedic surgery.

As a San Diego orthopedic surgeon who spent many years treating soldiers, athletes, and active patients of all ages, I have spent the better part of my lifetime refining an approach to holistic orthopedic care. When patients come to me with complaints, I look for ways to treat without surgery first. If interventions such as physical therapy and medications can’t do the trick, then we begin to plan a minimally invasive procedure together, placing a premium on good communication.

My practice covers a wide range of sports injuries and other orthopedic issues, but I specialize in a few key areas:

• Shoulder Pain
• Shoulder Surgery
• Knee Pain
• Knee Surgery
• Elbow, Hand and Wrist Pain
• Elbow, hand and Wrist Surgery

To learn more about any of these subjects, please click the links above. And if you’d like to keep up with all the most current information on orthopedic surgery in San Diego, just bookmark this link and check back often. Welcome aboard!