Achilles tendon ruptures sideline NBA players and weekend athletes states San Antonio Podiatrist

Achilles tendon injuries are serious injuries that can often be prevented
By: Dr. Ed Davis - South Texas Podiatrist
SAN ANTONIO - April 3, 2013 - PRLog -- A recent study of NBA players who have had Achilles tendon ruptures was presented by Rohit Garg, MD at a recent AAOS meeting with the following results.

“You can have a successful surgical repair with the result being that you return to the NBA, but you do not return to your preinjury levels,” Rohit Garg, MD, said.

"Researchers collected data between 1992 and 2012 of players’ NBA summaries, injury reports and player profiles. They tracked patient age, body mass index, position, years played for the NBA and games missed. They also obtained season statistics for each player and assessed NBA player efficiency ratings (PERs) for 2 seasons before and after injury. They used the Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare PER and minutes per game (MPG) before or after injury and the Mann Whitney U test to compare players with matched controls. Average patient age was 29.7 years, average BMI was 25.6 and average years playing in the NBA was 7.4 years."

"Of the 18 players, 11 players returned to play and 8 players played two seasons or more. The seven players who returned to play missed 55.9 games on average. The patients’ MPG decreased 5.21 in the first season and 4.28 in the second season and PER decreased to 4.64 in the first season and 4.28 in the second season. Both MPG and PER decreased significantly in the first season compared to matched controls, but there was no difference between groups in the second season."

“A total of 38.9% of players never returned to play,” Garg said in the study abstract."

Local San Antonio sports podiatrist, Dr. Ed Davis, states that it is important for athletes to take preventative measures to prevent Achilles injures. A tight Achilles tendon is easier to tear than one that is not. Proper stretching techniques can loosen most tight tendons but there are a number of athletes that have short heel cords that may require more aggressive treatment with manual therapy or more advanced biomechanical intervention. Chronic or recurrent Achilles pain may indicate that there is an issue requiring professional evaluation. Always avoid use of cortisone injections to the Achilles tendon as even a single injection to that tendon has been shown to significantly increase the chance of a tear.

Dr. Davis also states that partial Achilles tears are very common and often go on to healing with a minimum of treatment. “One should not challenge a partial tear as it can become a complete tear if stressed,” states Davis. Diagnostic ultrasound or sonography provides a rapid, highly effective and economical way to image the Achilles tendon and can generally be performed out in the field or at the initial office visit.

There are two different types of Achilles ruptures according to Dr. Davis. The first type involves significant trauma, often in younger patients and athletes. The second type occurs in older or middle aged individuals with seemingly mild trauma and may go undiagnosed for several days. Achilles tendinosis is a degeneration of the tendon which creates a weak spot in the tendon, usually at the level of the ankle bones. Patients may have few symptoms other than a “bulge” in the tendon or region of swelling. Dr. Davis states that diagnostic ultrasound or MRI can confirm that diagnosis. Treatment for Achilles tendinosis used to be primarily surgical but conservative treatment with high energy pressure waves known as ESWT (extracorporeal shockwave therapy) can often provide a higher success rate, is non-invasive and involves no time loss from work. Dr. Davis states that he has been using ESWT for this purpose for over 10 years.    

For more information contact Dr. Davis at 210-490-3668; http://www.southtexaspodiatrist.com/      http://www.heelpain.pro/
End
Source:Dr. Ed Davis - South Texas Podiatrist
Email:***@sanantoniodoc.net Email Verified
Tags:Podiatrist, podiatrist San Antonio, Achilles, Foot Pain, Achilles injury
Industry:Health, Sports
Location:San Antonio - Texas - United States
Subject:Reports



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