Elbow Pain - Joint Rehab and Sports Medical Center

Are MRIs sending people to back surgery who don’t need it?

There is thinking in the medical community that if you want to avoid a back surgery, do not get an MRI. This is not a new thought, the controversies surrounding MRI interpretation sending people to a back surgery that they did not need has been going on for years. BUT, the patients think they need back pain surgery to get back pain relief. New research (1) says: “Lumbar spine diagnostic imaging reports may cause patient and clinician concern when clinically unimportant findings are not explicitly described as benign.” In this March 2024 study, the authors found that while lumbar spine

Failed Ankle Surgery

Marc Darrow, MD. JD. We do get many emails about ankle pain. Some people write that they are on a waiting list for an ankle fusion, sometimes one, sometimes both ankles, and while they are waiting, they want to know if bone marrow aspirate concentrate stem cell therapy can be an option for them. Others write that the are bone on bone and have lost all the cartilage in their ankle, can we help? The risks and rewards of ankle arthrodesis or ankle fusion and total ankle replacement. Recent research in the British medical bulletin (1) discuss the risks and

Jumper’s Knee – Patella tendinopathy

Marc Darrow, MD., JD. Over the years we have seen a lot of people with knee problems. Many of them with problems of the patellar tendon. These people have had many treatments including painkillers and anti-inflammatories, cortisone injections, physical therapy, rest, some of the them wear big braces on their knees some try kinesio taping. They are doing a consult with us because they are still looking for help. After an email or a phone call we assesses the person’s situation. If we feel they are a realistic candidate for treatment, they come in for a consultation where we can

Achilles Tendon tears and tendinopathy

People share their stories with us every day. Some have had dozens of physical therapy sessions, some have had more than a dozen of iontophoresis – electric stimulation treatments. Some have had all these treatments and a few steroid shots and various applications of different kinesiology tapes too. Even after all this they are exploring our treatments because: “none of these worked long-term for me.” The patient experience. Is it a complete rupture or a partial rupture? Do I need the surgery or not? Different doctors give different recommendations In a September 2019 study, (1) doctors give a report on

Research on Vitamin D and knee pain

Vitamin D can be an important supplement in supporting various types of knee osteoarthritis treatments. Research as outlined below suggests that vitamin D supplementation can help alleviate pain and symptoms related to degenerative knee disease. What I hope to achieve in this article is that if you have a realistic expectation of what vitamin D can actually help you with and what it can’t, you will probably have good results from vitamin D supplementation. Short-term vitamin D supplementation should not be expected to reverse years of accelerated degenerative damage in the knee When it comes to vitamins and vitamin supplementation

Plantar fasciitis injections – Research

Over the years we have seen many patients with Plantar Fasciitis that had been unresponsive to conventional treatments. These conventional treatments included physical therapy, cortisone, and anti-inflammatories. While not the best choice for doctor or patient, many of these people considered the surgical option as the ultimate choice because they “have to do something.” But will surgery be any more effective? We will cover this in research cited later in this article. Is it the heel spur causing pain or is it plantar fasciitis? When a patient comes into our office with plantar fasciitis and a bone or heel spur

Blog

Are MRIs sending people to back surgery who don’t need it?

Failed Ankle Surgery

Jumper’s Knee – Patella tendinopathy

Achilles Tendon tears and tendinopathy

Research on Vitamin D and knee pain

Plantar fasciitis injections – Research

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