Sports Medicine

GENERAL INFORMATION

Today’s athlete can be a little league baseball player, a working mother interested in staying fit, or a senior citizen who golfs. From torn ligaments, to sprains and strains, Puget Sound Orthopaedics (PSO) surgeons have extensive experience in treating all kinds of conditions caused by sports related injuries. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a high school, collegiate, or professional athlete, you can benefit from Puget Sound Orthopaedics sports medicine specialists to help you get back into the game.

Sports Related Injuries

Overuse injuries: These injuries occur over time, typically when an athletic activity is repeated often and the body does not have enough time to recover and heal between playing.

Stress fractures: Occur due to repetitive stress when the body is no longer able to absorb the shock and pressure of an action. Fatigued muscles transfer the stress to the bone causing tiny cracks in the bone.

Soft tissue injuries: Caused by overuse or sudden trauma (fall, twist or blow to the body), these injuries affect the muscles, tendons and ligaments.

Sprains and strains: Strains and sprains are common injuries when a ligament or tendon is hyper-extended leaving the tissue stretched or torn.

Tendinitis: An overuse injury caused by small repeated stresses to the tendon that cause inflammation or irritation of a tendon or the covering of a tendon.

Shin splints: Pain along the inner edge of the shinbone (tibia) caused by inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around the tibia.

Throwing injuries: Overuse injuries in the shoulder or elbow caused by repeated overhand motion that puts stress on the shoulder or elbow.

Burners and stingers: A painful electric shock feeling that spreads from the shoulder to the hand starting in the nerves of the neck after they have been stretched or compressed after an impact. These injuries tend to be temporary and symptoms can go away quickly.

Treatment Options

Arthroscopy: A surgical procedure using an arthroscope, a small camera. The camera is inserted through a small skin incision and displays images on a video monitor. The surgeon uses those images to guide small instruments to the injury to make repairs.

Knee arthroscopy: an arthroscopic procedure is used for many knee related repairs, such as removal or repair of a torn meniscus, reconstruction of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, removal of inflamed synovial tissue, trimming of damaged articular cartilage, and more.
Shoulder arthroscopy: an arthroscopic procedure is used for many shoulder repairs, such as rotator cuff repair, bone spur removal, removal or repair of the labrum, repair of ligaments, and more.

Meniscal repair: The knee meniscus are two wedge-shaped pieces of cartilage between the thighbone and shinbone. They act as shock absorbers and are tough and rubbery to help cushion the joint and keep it stable. The meniscus can tear in four different ways and often occurs during sports when contact is involved. The type of tear determines if surgery may be needed. In a meniscus repair the tears are repaired with suturing using an arthroscope.

Ligament and tendon repair: tendons and ligaments are cords of fibrous tissue. Tendons connect muscle to bone and ligaments connect bone to bone.

ACL reconstruction: An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury can be either a sprain or a tear of the ligament. This key ligament holds together the femur and tibia and is pivotal in providing stability and motion in the knee. ACL injuries have different grades depending on the severity of the sprain or tear and may require surgery to fully regain function of the knee. Severely torn ACLs are replaced using a graft to reconnect the thigh and shinbone. The torn ACL is removed and the graft is placed and adhered to the bone with screws.

Fracture repair: a fracture is a break in the bone. Bones can break in many different ways. When surgery is required to rejoin and realign the broken bones, pins, plates, screws or external fixators may be used.

Prevention & Wellness Tips

Additional Resources

Common Conditions

And more…

Our specialties extend beyond what you see here. If you have a special need, make an appointment with us!

Sports Medicine

Sports Related Injuries

Treatment Options

Prevention & Wellness Tips

Additional Resources

Common Conditions

And more…

Sports Medicine Treatment Physicians

W. Brandt Bede, MD

Spencer A. Coray, MD

John T. Heffernan, MD

Patrick J. Vaughan, MD

Request an Appointment