SPORTS MEDICINE. SPORTS INJURY MANAGEMENT AND REHABILITATION
Aesthetics & Medical Lasers of Colorado
RECOVER FASTER/ PERFORM BETTER SPORTS MEDICINE
RELIEVE PAIN & RESTORE RANGE OF MOTION
IMPROVE STRENGTH AND FUNCTION
At Aesthetics & Medical Laser of Colorado, we offer some of the newest state-of-the-art sports injury and recovery treatments. We pay special attention to each of our patients. Whether you are a high-level athlete or just want to be able to walk again without pain and disability, we have the tools and knowledge to help you succeed. We are driven by the success in helping our patients in achieving their goals.
Healthy muscles and joints are critical for any athlete, at any level in any sport. That’s just as true whether you play professionally or just like to play a sport at your local recreation center.
Unfortunately, our muscles and tendons are prone to injury. And if you ignore those injuries and try to play through the pain, without proper care, you may end up with chronic pain, frequent re-injury and ultimately losing the ability to keep up with your active lifestyle.
At Aesthetics & Medical Lasers of Colorado, we provide comprehensive care for several sports-related injuries. We can usually get most of our athletes back to pain-free competition level in a relatively short time. Gone are the days when athletes had to take the season off going through countless weeks to months of conventional physical therapy.
We use evidence-based practices that combine the use of Orthobiologics and modern energy-based modalities. We have worked with several athletes of all ages, ranging from middle school to the masters. We have had a very high success rate with our services. Most athletes are able to return to their respective sports within a couple of weeks.
Some of the common injuries we treat include:
Rotator cuff tendinitis
Runner’s tendinitis, runner’s knee
Iliotibial band tendinitis (IT band syndrome)
Tennis elbow
Golfer’s elbow
Achilles tendinitis
Lumbosacral pain
Neck pain
Muscular tension and stiffness
Frozen shoulder
Adhesive capsulitis
Plantar Fasciitis
Hoffa’s Fat Pad impingement syndrome
Osgood-Schlatter disease
Knee pain
Shoulder pain
Hip pain
Hand & Wrist pain
Shin splints
Stress fractures
Hamstring sprains and tears.
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
What is regenerative medicine?
Regenerative medicine is an area of medical practice focused on harnessing the body’s innate healing power. The approach seeks to repair or replace tissues damaged by trauma, degeneration, or disease.
Orthobiologics is a term used to describe naturally occurring biological substances present in the human body that can be harvested and utilized anywhere in the body to speed up the recovery of injured tissues. Examples of orthobiologics include fat, blood, plasma-rich protein, and bone marrow. Regenerative medicine has many applications. Below are just a few of the issues that regenerative medicine can address that we offer.
Tennis elbow tendinitis.
Hip flexor tendon sprains.
Plantar fasciitis
Pulled hamstrings.
Ligament sprains or tears
Rotator cuff sprain and tears
Calf muscle strains and tears.
How do I know if regenerative medicine is right for me? Each of our patients is assessed and treated on an individual basis. Our staff will provide you with the best treatment options for your specific problem.
For those patients in whom regenerative medicine is appropriate, other adjunctive therapies such as Shockwave therapy may be used in conjunction with, say, PRP. This offers the added synergistic effect to boost the healing process and get you back to your activities as quickly as possible. Our primary goal is to get you back to your pre-injury activity level in the quickest possible time using the most effective and least invasive approach.
SHIN SPLINTS
Shin splints refer to pain or discomfort caused by inflammation, or stress in the tissues surrounding the shinbone (tibia), or even in the shinbone itself. This is very common in runners, but just about any active individual can be affected. In the beginning, the pain is only apparent during or immediately after exercise. However, if this remains untreated, the pain may become chronic and present almost all the time. Extracorporeal Magneto Transduction Therapy (EMTT) utilizes strong magnetic fields to stimulate cellular neogenesis. EMTT provides soothing and fast pain relief for shin splints in only a couple of sessions.
STRESS FRACTURES
Stress fractures are small cracks in bone that develop over time due to constant stress and impact forces. They are extremely common in the weight-bearing portions of the foot, such as the metatarsal bones of the arch and forefoot. They can also occur in other places. Stress fractures are highly frustrating for athletes because they often take a long time to heal. There have been few effective treatments besides rest. Returning to sports before your stress fractures have completely healed may undo whatever progress has been made or even make the situation worse. At Aesthetics and Medical Lasers, we utilize EMTT to stimulate cell repair and speed up the recovery process from your stress fractures.
PLANTAR FASCIITIS AND BONE SPURS
Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of pain in the bottom of the foot and heel. Approximately 2 million patients in the US are treated for this condition every year.
The plantar fascia is a band of connective tissue that connects your heel bone to the base of your toes. It supports the arch of the foot and absorbs shock when walking or running.
The plantar fascia is designed to absorb the high stresses and strains we place on our feet when walking, running, and doing other activities like playing sports.
Sometimes, this fascia can become subjected to higher-than-normal levels of tension and stress, causing it to develop small tears.
Repeated stretching and tearing of the fascia can irritate it, resulting in inflammation. We call this Plantar fasciitis.
RISK FACTORS:
Plantar fasciitis can develop without any obvious causes; however, there are several factors that can increase the risk of developing this condition. These include: Age. Plantar fasciitis is most common in people between the ages of 40 and 60.
Certain types of exercises. Activities that place a lot of stress on the heel such as long-distance running, ballet dancing, and aerobic dance.
Foot mechanics. Flat feet, a high arch or even an atypical pattern of walking can affect the way weight is distributed while walking or standing. This can increase the amount of stress on the plantar fascia.
Obesity. Excess weight exerts more stress on the plantar fascia.
Occupations that keep you on your feet. Factory workers, teachers, and others who spend most of their work hours walking or standing on hard surfaces are at increased risk of plantar fasciitis.
Introduction of new activity or increase in intensity of one’s activities.
SYMPTOMS
The most common symptoms of plantar fasciitis include:
Pain on the bottom of the foot near the heel.
Pain with the first few steps after getting out of bed in the morning, or after a long period of rest, such as after a long car ride. The pain goes away after a few minutes of walking.
Greater pain after exercise or activity.
COMPLICATIONS
Ignoring plantar fasciitis can result in chronic heel and mid-foot pain that hinders your regular activities. Patients are likely to alter their gait to avoid plantar fasciitis pain, which might lead to knee, hip, and back problems.
X-ray imaging provides images of bones and is useful in ruling out other causes of heel pain, such as fractures and arthritis. Sometimes, heel spurs can be seen on an X-ray. A heel spur can be the result of longstanding tension on the plantar fascia insertion site. Many people with bone spurs on their heels do not experience any heel pain. When treating heel pain due to plantar fasciitis, bone spurs do not necessarily need to be removed.
TREATMENT
Treatment of Plantar fasciitis is usually non-surgical. More than 90% of patients will completely recover from plantar fasciitis after several months.
Rest from activities that triggered plantar fasciitis such as running.
Adjusting activity to low-impact exercise, such as cycling or swimming, puts less stress on your joints and feet than walking or running.
Stretching. Plantar fasciitis is aggravated by tight muscles in your feet and calves. Stretching the calf muscles and plantar fascia helps relieve some of the pain.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and Kenalog (Steroid) injections can be used to alleviate the pain and inflammation.
Supportive shoes and orthotics.
Physical therapy is very helpful in treating Achilles tendinitis.
Avoid worn-out shoes that do not provide ample support. Always replace your old athletic shoes before they wear out completely.
Night splints stretch the plantar fascia while you sleep and are effective at reducing heel pain from plantar fasciitis.
OTHER TREATMENTS
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections may be effective in the treatment of plantar fasciitis when used in conjunction with other modalities such as shockwave therapy.
At Aesthetics and Medical Lasers, we have found a lot of success in the treatment of plantar fasciitis using extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT). We, therefore, strongly recommend this as our go-to first-line treatment modality for plantar fasciitis. This treatment modality involves the use of high-energy acoustic wave impulses to stimulate the healing process of the damaged plantar fascia. Many patients will require a few sessions performed once a week.
Suffering from plantar fasciitis? Call us on 7208180533 for a free consultation.
PATELLAR TENDON-LATERAL FEMORAL CONDYLAR FRICTION OR HOFFA’S FAT PAD IMPINGEMENT SYNDROME.
The infrapatellar fat pad, also referred to as Hoffa’s pad, is a soft tissue that lies behind the kneecap or patella. It separates the patella from the distal end of the femoral bone. The fat pad is one of the most sensitive structures in the knee.
The fat pad acts as a shock absorber, thus protecting the underlying structures. For example, if you were to suffer a direct blow to the patella.
A direct impact to the kneecap can result in impingement of the fat pad. Subsequently, the fat pad can get stuck between the femoral condyle and the patella, causing extreme pain at the back of your kneecap.
Hoffa fat pad impingement syndrome is a common cause of anterior knee pain in active individuals. It is thought to be due to patellar maltracking or imbalance of the forces between medial and lateral vastus muscles, causing impingement of the superolateral aspect of Hoffa fat pad between the inferior patella and the lateral femoral condyle.
It can be a long-term, chronic condition. This is because it is aggravated by repetitive knee extension, in which case the fat pad comes under constant irritation and may become inflamed.
CLINICAL PRESENTATION
Patients present with anterior knee pain exacerbated by hyperextension and point tenderness at the inferior pole of the patella. The fat pad is thickened, which may make palpating the patella difficult.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
Fat pad impingement symptoms include:
Pain at the front of your knee, specifically around the bottom, and underneath the kneecap
You may have a history of being able to hyperextend the knee.
In some cases, the bottom of your kneecap tilts outwards from swelling underneath
Biomechanics: The fat pad is more susceptible to being pinched if the knee is excessively moved into extension, such as with hypermobility. Excessive knee extension may include a previous injury to the knee’s ligaments. Damage to ligaments can cause poor control of knee movements, such as knee extension. Repeated compression of the fat pad can cause damage, inflammation, and potentially scar tissue formation. Hoffa fat pad scarring can be seen because of injury and subsequent insufficiency of the ACL ligament.
Repeated Hyperextension of the knee is common in some sports that cause full extension of the knee with high force. Fast bowlers in cricket, long jumpers, football players, skiing, and dancing are all examples of activities associated with an increased risk of hyperextension injuries.
HOW DO WE TEST FOR HOFFA’S FAT PAD IMPINGEMENT SYNDROME?
THE HOFFA’S TEST.
With the patient lying on their back with the knee bent, the doctor will press both thumbs along either side of your patellar tendon. The patient is then asked to straighten the leg. The test is positive for fat pad impingement when they feel pain during knee joint extension.
TREATMENT
Treatment of fat pad impingement is usually non-surgical. Resting from activities that aggravate the pain is important. Low-impact activities such as bicycling or swimming are recommended during the recovery period. Returning to high knee impact sporting activities such as jumping and running may take several months.
Patella taping can be very highly effective in treating fat pad impingement. Physical therapy to strengthen the surrounding muscle groups should be done as tolerated.
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy are some of the treatments that we use for fat pad impingement.
Steroid injection of the fat pad can be done to reduce inflammation and alleviate pain in the acute setting.
Shockwave therapy has been used at our office for the treatment of this condition and the results have so far been very promising. More studies are underway to further support this.
Surgery is considered as a last resort when all the conservative treatments have failed and may involve complete or partial removal of the fat pad itself. Serving the cities of Denver, Longmont, Boulder, and Fort Collins for all your sports injury rehabilitation needs. Contact us at 720 818 0533 to schedule your appointment. We are here to get you back into your sport in the shortest amount of time.