Sports Medicine
Sports Medicine
Sports medicine deals with physical fitness, treatment, and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise.
It also looks at the benefits of exercise on health and how certain medical conditions can affect person’s ability to do sport and exercise.
Surgery will have an affect on the type of exercise, and ability to exercise, which someone can do. It’s important to get the right advice and support following surgery.
Knee conditions
Anterior Cruciate Ligament
The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is a major ligament in your knee. ACL injuries most commonly occur during sports that involve sudden stops and changes in direction, such as soccer, football, basketball, and volleyball.
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Meniscal Tears
A torn meniscus is damaged from a tear in the cartilage, which is positioned on top of the tibia, to allow the femur to glide when the knee joint moves.
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Cartilage Injury
Cartilage that coats your bones helps with smooth movement. Sometimes the cartilage can become torn or worn and if so it can leave the rough bone surfaces exposed – resulting in friction in the joint.
Damaged cartilage can potentially lead to knee arthritis, with long-term effects on your knee function.
More information can be found here
New Technologies for treating sports injuries
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is gathered from your own blood. Plasma is the liquid portion of your blood, composed of protein, water, and thrombocytes that aid in blood clotting and healing. The process of forming PRP separates your powerful platelets from red blood cells and concentrates them into an injection for healing.
When made into an injection, PRP (platelet-rich-plasma) can be used to alleviate joint and muscle pain, sprains, strains, and conditions like osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and even alopecia.
The process is very similar to stem cell therapy derived from bone marrow in which a specialist collects a sample of your blood and places it in a centrifuge. It is spun at high speed, allowing the plasma to separate from the red blood cells. The plasma layer is then carefully extracted into a syringe to inject into the injured or painful area.
The platelets release growth factors into the muscle, joints and other target tissue, encouraging cell repair and renewal. In essence, PRP injections trigger and encourage the body’s natural processes of healing, which is why this treatment falls under the category of regenerative medicine.
PRP injections are a great choice for those looking for minimally invasive recovery from the damaging effects of chronic inflammation and arthritis.
Stem Cell Therapy
The main conditions treated by stem cell injections include knee osteoarthritis, cartilage degeneration, and various acute conditions, such as a torn ACL, MCL, or meniscus. Stem cell therapy may speed healing times in the latter, while it can rebuild tissue in degenerative conditions such as the former.
That’s a major breakthrough. Since cartilage does not regenerate, humans only have as much as they are born with. Once years of physical activity have worn it away from joints, there is no replacing it. Or at least, there wasn’t before stem cell therapy.
Now, this cutting-edge technology enables physicians to introduce stem cells to the body. These master cells can turn into formerly finite cell types to help the body rebuild and restore itself.
Address
Clemenceau Medical Center Hospital, Dubai