Sports medicine at Urgent Orthopaedic Care offers highly effective treatment for shin splints, ankle sprains, tennis elbow, and other sports injuries. Experienced sports medicine specialist Vlad Gendelman, MD, QME, AME, FAAOS, offers world-class orthopedic care for sports injuries in two offices in the Echo Park and North Hollywood areas of Los Angeles, California. Call the office nearest you or book an appointment online now.
Sports Medicine Q & A
What is sports medicine?
Sports medicine focuses on injuries suffered by athletes and other active people. Both acute injuries and repetitive movements can damage your bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and other tissues. Sports medicine helps you overcome pain and return to normal activities.
What injuries does sports medicine address?
At Urgent Orthopaedic Care, sports medicine covers the full spectrum of orthopedic conditions affecting athletes and active individuals. Common sports injuries include:
Ankle Sprain
An ankle sprain is stretching or tearing of the fibrous tissue bands (ligaments) that connect your ankle bones. This injury often happens with accidental twisting, rolling, or turning movements.
Shin Splints
Shin splints occur with inflammation in the tibia (your main lower leg bone), the thin tissue that covers your tibia, and the attached muscles. Shin splints often affect people resuming activity after a long layoff.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Tear
ACL tears affect one of the ligaments that connect your femur (thigh bone) to your tibia. Most ACL tears result from movements like cutting, pivoting, or awkwardly landing a jump. About 3 in 10 ACL tears happen because of contact or collision with a person or object.
Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow affects the lateral epicondyle, the point where your forearm tendons connect to your outer elbow bump. This condition occurs with repetitive motion, like using your forearm muscles to hold and swing a tennis racket.
What are the symptoms of sports injuries?
Sports injuries can cause a number of issues depending on the particular injury. Common symptoms include:
- Pain that usually increases with activity
- Difficulty bearing weight or using the body part
- Weakness
- Swelling
- Bruising
With some sports injuries, the pain and other problems start immediately at the time of injury. With overuse injuries like tennis elbow, the symptoms usually develop and worsen over time.
How does sports medicine work?
At Urgent Orthopaedic Care, Dr. Gendelman does everything he can to help you avoid surgery. He starts with conservative treatments, such as training changes, physical rehab, short-term medication, and Multiwave Locked System (MLS®) laser therapy.
MLS laser therapy is an innovative treatment that treats inflammation, swelling, and pain using specific light wavelengths. Up to 90% of patients experience significant improvement with MLS laser therapy.
Anti-inflammatory and anesthetic injections are another option for pain relief as you heal. But, injections only decrease pain and swelling, so you still need other approaches like MLS laser therapy to prompt healing.
If conservative treatments aren’t effective, Dr. Gendelman can discuss your options for injury repair and recovery, including surgery.
If you need surgery, Dr. Gendelman has extensive expertise in arthroscopic surgery and other minimally invasive techniques. He always uses the method that creates as little disruption as possible so you can achieve a faster recovery.
For help with sports injuries, call Urgent Orthopaedic Care or book your appointment online.
