blog Archives - Page 14 of 19 - Orthopedic Surgery San Diego

17/Oct/2014

Exercise is important to all aspects of our health. Daily exercise helps slim the waistline, keeps us fit, reduces the chances of heart disease and high blood pressure, helps us sleep better, and gives us more energy. Thirty minutes of exercise daily will rev up the metabolism and improve moods.

Exercise is also important for our mental health. Moving our bodies releases neurotransmitters and endorphins which are known as “feel good” chemicals. It also reduces chemicals that can cause depression to worsen. Working out improves our appearance, which helps boost confidence.

Stress has been known to cause depression in people and animals. Mice were put to the test in a study done in Stockholm. After 5 weeks of putting the mice in some mild stressful situations, they showed signs of depression. Doctors know that exercise before stress occurs reduces depression due to an enzyme produced known as PCG-1alpha1, so they bred mice that contained high levels of that enzyme. They then exposed these mice to 5 weeks of stress, and while they showed signs of worry, they did not become fully depressed. Continuing the study on people, those put through 3 weeks of endurance training showed high levels of the enzyme in their muscles, proving the theory that exercise reduces depression.

While that is great news, those who struggle with long-term depression, chronic pain, arthritis, and high amounts of stress, have a difficult time just finding the motivation to begin to exercise. Fibromyalgia sufferers have pain in all parts of the body, making basic movement difficult, let alone jogging, or riding a bike. Those with fibromyalgia are three times more likely to have depression, much of it having to do with the length of time it takes to diagnose. Fibromyalgia is not well understood and hard to treat. Compounded with chronic pain and fatigue sufferers tend to withdraw from friends, have more anxiety, and exercise less.

Frozen shoulder is another issue that has not been studied in depth and is misunderstood. It often occurs for no reason, and causes capsules surrounding the joint in the shoulder to shrink and form scar tissue. This causes lowered range of motion and pain. There are three stages to frozen shoulder: freezing, frozen, and thawing. The freezing stage causes pain and limited range of motion, pain and motion decreases during the frozen stage, and the shoulder begins to improve during the thawing stage. Each stage can last up to 6 months, so this is around 18 months of pain and limited range of motion, which causes depression and inactivity.

Exercise does not have to be painful, grueling, boring, or cringe-worthy. Finding an activity you enjoy is the first step. Start small, do little things like walking around the block, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther from the door in a parking lot, washing the car, or pulling weeds. Anything that gets you moving around will greatly improve your mood, and help you feel better in and out.

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17/Oct/2014

Shoulder injury in a young athlete is usually a result of overuse, barred a distinct traumatic event. One of the types of overuse shoulder injuries that results in severe shoulder pain is called acromial apophysiolysis. Pediatricians often diagnose the condition in young baseball pitchers.

Incomplete fusion and tenderness of the acromion is responsible for the shoulder injury, according to the Radiological Society of North America. The acromion forms the bone at the top of the shoulder. It actually consists of four bones that join during a person’s teen years.

In its online journal “Radiology,” the RSNA described the results of a study which found that “young baseball pitchers who throw more than 100 pitches per week are at risk” of suffering acromial apophysiolysis. Some sustain rotator cuff tears and other shoulder injuries, as well.

Another study, also posted at pubs.rna.org, concluded that acromial apophysiolysis is characterized in part by edema (too much watery fluid accumulating in body cavities or tissues).

Patients 25 years of age and younger were found to be most susceptible to “superior” shoulder pain due to the shoulder injury. Researchers confirmed that pitching “is a risk factor (because) it predisposes the patient to the development of an osacromiale and rotator cuff tears after age 25 years.”

The study is titled “Acromial Apophysiolysis: Superior Shoulder Pain and Acromial Nonfusion in the Young Throwing Athlete.” The authors were Johannes B. Roedl, MD, PhD; William B. Morrison, MD; Michael G. Ciccotti, MD; and Adam C. Zoga, MD.

“We kept seeing this injury over and over again in young athletes who come to the hospital at the end of the baseball season with shoulder pain and edema at the acromion, but no other imaging findings,” Roedl, a radiologist, said in a news release. “We believe that, as a result of overuse, edema develops and the acromion bone does not fuse normally.”

The research took place at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s Department of Radiology in Philadelphia. It involved 2,372 patients between 15 and 25 years of age who had undergone MRIs to diagnose the cause of their shoulder pain. The imaging tests detected edema of the acromial apophyses in 61 (2.6 percent) of the cases.

“Association of acromial edema with incomplete fusion, pitching and clinical findings was determined in the study group, and in an age- and sex-matched control group,” the researchers wrote.

The patients included men and women, most of whom were baseball pitchers. Roedl said they were chosen for the study because “among high school athletes, pitching is the most common reason for shoulder injury.”

Forty percent of one group of study participants had thrown more than 100 pitches per week, compared with 8 percent in the other group. All the patients were diagnosed with acromial apophysiolysis.

According to sportswithoutinjury.com, baseball pitchers are not the only athletes at risk. The shoulder injury also happens to those who play softball, tennis, golf, handball, volleyball and other sports that require throwing or hitting an object. Even weight lifters and yoga practitioners are vulnerable.

The best advice for avoiding acromial apophysiolysis and other overuse shoulder injuries is to practice moderation. The shoulder joint needs time to rest and heal. When the arm starts to hurt, it is time to take a break.

The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends that pitchers reduce the number of times they throw a ball in a game. The organization supports pitch-count limits set by the USA Baseball Medical Safety Advisory Committee.

Strengthening exercises, and stretching and warming up before workouts, are helpful. Ice and anti-inflammatory medication reduce swelling and discomfort.

If you or your child are faced with unabating shoulder pain, contact our nationally recognized sports medicine physicians at Orthopedic Surgery San Diego.

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16/Oct/2014

Pain and other chronic shoulder problems may be caused by sitting at a tablet computer or touch-screen keyboard for extended periods, according to a new study.
Researchers compared the physical impacts of working on three kinds of keyboards. Their findings were published in the November edition of Applied Ergonomics.The study concluded that using touch-screen or virtual keyboards entails less typing force and finger-muscle stress. Working with a tablet, on the other hand, requires holding the fingers in a suspended position above the computer to avoid accidentally pressing a key. That may result in “static loading” in the shoulders, according to the researchers at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill.
Nineteen experienced users of touch-screen keyboards (10 men and nine women in their mid-20s) participated in the study. They typed portions of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” in five-minute increments on virtual, desktop and notebook keyboards. Electrodes recorded muscle activity in the forearms and shoulders, while a force platform under the computers measured keystroke force, the Wall Street Journal reported.On average, the volunteers typed 63 words per minute on the desktop and notebook keyboards; and 25 words per minute on the touch screens. When using the virtual keyboards, they made more mistakes but required less muscle activity.The trapezius muscles in the upper back were strained to a greater degree with touch screens than that experienced while using the other types of keyboards, possibly because of “hand and forearm floating,” the researchers wrote. This is called parascapular myofascial pain. They suggested that prolonged use of touch screens can lead to muscle damage.
The study, funded in part by Hewlett-Packard Co., was titled “Differences in Typing Forces, Muscle Activity, Comfort and Typing Performance Among Virtual, Notebook and Desktop Keyboards.”
Orthopedists frequently treat patients who suffer shoulder pain and inflammation that results from overuse or injury. The bony structures or soft tissues can deteriorate due to long-term, repetitive strain.The pain often happens only when making certain movements, though chronic and persistent discomfort also can occur. Sometimes, resting the shoulders can make the pain go away. Simple prophylactic measures like taking a 5 minute stretch break every hour can help avert this ailment. In other cases, orthopedists prescribe treatments ranging from physical therapy, acupuncture, oral medication, or surgery.

The most commonly diagnosed causes of shoulder inflammation are bursitis, tendonitis and tendon tears Irritation of muscles in the neck and posterior shoulder is called myofascial pain Repetitive straining of the shoulders can cause inflammation of bursae, tiny sacs of fluid that reduce friction between muscles and bones within the shoulder blade. When the bursae become irritated and swell, subacromial bursitis can develop. When the arm is lifted, the acromion rubs on tendons and bursae in the rotator cuff. Impingement lead to limits in shoulder range of motion. The situation also can lead to a rotator cuff tear. Patients diagnosed with this condition typically also experience rotator cuff tendonitis. The pain can be severe enough to limit simple, everyday activities.
Long-term deterioration can cause a tendon to split or tear. A complete tear is the severing of a tendon into separate pieces, which usually detaches it from the bone. The injury most frequently is diagnosed in the rotator cuff tear or biceps tendon tear.

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15/Oct/2014

Our hips extend and knees bend due to a group of three muscles located in the back of the thigh called the hamstrings. These muscles, if not stretched properly prior to exercise can stretch too far, pull, or even tear. These are very common in athletes and often occur during running, jumping, and in sports like basketball, soccer, wrestling, where stopping and starting occur in spurts. Pain associated with a hamstring strain can range from a mild irritation to a severe pain that leaves one unable to stand. If you feel a sudden snap, pop, or pain in the back of the thigh, it is most often the hamstring.
The hamstring muscle group crosses over and effects the hip and knee joints but it also affects the legs, and back. Hamstrings that are not stretched properly prior to running and exercise can not only cause leg and knee pain, but also lower back and hip pain. Hip pain can come in the form of burning, dull aches, or a popping sensation. Hip pain can affect mobility and compensating for the pain causes strain on other muscles.
Even though hamstring strains are one of the most common injury that athletes face, there is still not a definitive answer on how to manage them. Doctors have looked to plasma-rich platelet (PRP) injections for a possible treatment. Platelet-rich plasma is plasma that contains 5 to 10 times greater the amount of platelets than in blood. Platelets promote healing, prevents blood loss, and tissue repair. To obtain the PRP, blood is drawn from the patient and is then centrifuged in a machine that separates the plasma from other blood cells. The plasma is recombined with the rest of the blood and injected into the patient.
A controlled trial using platelet-rich plasma injections (PRP) was done on twenty-eight patients each having an acute hamstring injury. The purpose was to see if this treatment had any effect on pain management, along with shortening the healing time. Patients were divided into two groups, one group receiving PRP injections combined with a rehabilitation program, while the control group was given rehabilitation only. Those receiving the PRP injections and rehabilitation recovered fully and return time to their activities was 26.7 ± 7.0 days, while those in the control groups return time was 42.5 ± 20.6 days. Lower pain severity scores were recorded throughout the trial, although the difference of pain scale between the two groups was not significant. The end conclusion is that PRP injections in addition to a rehabilitation program is more effective than a rehabilitation alone for treating acute hamstring injuries. This is extraordinarily promising.
Hamstring and hip pain can be avoided by properly stretching before activities. Not all injuries occur due to sports, simply gardening and chores can result in an injury if muscles are tight. Routine stretching is an effective tool against hip pain and hamstring tears. If you are concerned about hip pain, contact our renowned sports medicine orthopedists to be evaluated at Orthopedic Surgery San Diego.

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30/Sep/2014

ACL injuries or Knee ligament injuries are seen commonly by the best orthopedists in town, as these injuries often times occur in aggressive or elite level San Diego athletes that yearn to return to play.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries or simply ACL injuries happen to hundreds of thousands of people every year. ACL injuries usually end play and can be extraordinarily painful. Although debilitating, they are treatable. You just have to make sure you know how severe your injury is and what you can do to treat the problem.

ACL injuries are actually quite common among people who participate in high action cutting sports, such as:

Soccer
Football
Basketball
Lacrosse

Levels of Severity with ACL Injuries

There are three categories of injuries based on what kind of damage has been done to the ACL:

Grade 1 ACL injuries: This is the easiest ACL injury to heal. A grade one ACL injury is the result of the ligament stretching slightly. It does not cause the knee joint to become unstable.
Grade 2 ACL injuries: This grade of injury is in the middle, and the least common of all knee injuries. A grade two type of injury happens when the ligament stretches to the point where it is unstable. It is more commonly known as a partial tear.
Grade 3 ACL injuries: This ACL injury is the most severe. A grade three injury is labeled when the ligament is completely torn in half. This can cause the knee to become extremely unstable. Severe knee pain and an almost impossible time walking are common symptoms.

At the end of the day, the grade doesn’t really matter. To an orthopedist this injury boils down to those athletes that are able to compensate (ie, their knee is functionally stable) and those that can’t (ie, their knee is functionally unstable). Having a functionally stable knee means that that athlete is able to return to his/her level of customary play in cutting sports without the knee giving out. Generally speaking, one third of athletes will be able to return to play despite their injury with little to no intervention; one third of athletes will be able to return to play after engaging in directed physical therapy without surgery; one third will require surgery in order to return to play due to continued knee instability despite physical therapy.

Treatments for ACL injuries

Non-Severe ACL Injuries

If you only have a mild injury, you can, usually, use physical therapy to treat your injuries. Your physical therapist will have you go through a series of exercises and motions to help you regain full control of your knee again. It can take some time to heal completely, depending on the injury type.

Since this is so common with sports athletes, there are specialists who work specifically with athletes. The goal is to help them get back into their sport of choice as quickly as possible.

Severe ACL Injuries (ie, unstable knee)

One third of the athletes will require surgery to regain a stable knee, despite having engaged in physical therapy. With a physical examination and an MRI scan, a well-trained sports medicine surgeon can anticipate the need for treatment of various concomitant injuries: cartilage damage, meniscus tears, etc.

ACL reconstruction can be done in a variety of ways. First decision to be made is whether a patient chooses to use their own tissue or donor tissue to reconstruct the ligament. If a patient chooses their own tissue, the options are bone-patellar tendon-bone, or hamstring tendon, or quadriceps tendon. Although some surgeons may argue that one type of tissue is superior to the other, many studies have looked at this and there is little to no clinical difference.

If you have been told that you have an ACL tear or are concerned about a knee injury, contact our award winning sports medicine doctors at San Diego Orthopedic Surgery Clinic.

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30/Sep/2014

Exercise can lead to knee injury or hip pain if done so with poor technique. This is commonly seen with weight lifting and shoulder pain. It is common for the recreational gym enthusiast to ponder whether to lift and then bike or vice versa. Recent research indicates that lifting weights before or after engaging in cardio exercise can be beneficial, according to a New York Times “Well” blog.

The evidence is contrary to the advice many people have received. It is widely believed that workouts involving both types of exercise are not as effective as doing cardio and resistance training separately.

A study the Journal of Applied Physiology published in March involved people riding stationary bicycles with one leg, then doing resistance exercises with both legs. Some of the participants performed the two kinds of workouts in the opposite order.

Researchers looked for differences between the leg that did both exercises and the limb that only lifted weights. They found that, after five weeks, both legs had gained similar amounts of muscle and strength. Cycling before lifting weights did not adversely affect the benefits of the resistance workouts. The same results were reported for participants who did resistance training before cycling.

Biopsies were performed on the subjects before and after weight training to assess the size of the vastus lateralis and quadriceps muscles in both legs. The researchers took muscle samples to assess citrate synthase activity and glycogen concentration. Muscle size increased at a greater rate in participants who performed both types of exercise, compared with those who did only resistance work.

Another study, conducted in 2012, showed that inactive, middle-aged men had good results combining cardio or aerobic exercise with weight lifting. The research failed to show that one type of exercise diminishes the value of the other kind.

The lead researcher was kinesiology professor Stuart Phillips of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He reported positive changes in myofibrillar and mitochondrial protein fractional synthesis rates, and other indicators, for the eight men involved in the study.

The participants did leg-extension repetitions, followed by riding stationary bicycles. Biopsy analysis suggested no “interference effect on muscle protein subfractional synthesis rates, protein signaling or mRNA expression,” the researchers wrote.

While the medical terminology is complicated, the message is clear: Combining cardio with weight training does not reduce the effectiveness of either workout. The research indicates that doing both can produce positive outcomes, regardless the order in which the exercises are performed.

If you have sustained an injury while lifting weights or during a cardio workout, contact our top notch orthopedists at San Diego Orthopedic Surgery Clinic.

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30/Sep/2014

At San Diego Orthopedics we strive to promote a healthier lifestyle and in our quest we not only write about dealing with knee pain or shoulder injuries but also about leading a healthy lifestyle.

Anyone hoping to read that heart attacks in men (and women) can be prevented by eating fast food, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, drinking moderately, and living a sedentary lifestyle will be very disappointed by the next few paragraphs. Everything we know that is bad for us, is bad for us for a reason. Smoking cigars or cigarettes, along with eating poorly, causes a myriad of problems, compound that with little or no exercise, and you are a ticking time bomb for a heart attack. While you may have a perfectly healthy 99 year old uncle that has eaten a pound of bacon and a bottle of whiskey every day for 70 years, he is very much the exception.

Believe it or not, but 4 out of 5 heart attacks can actually be prevented by eating healthier, managing weight, cutting out cigarettes, and keeping alcohol to a minimum. It looks easy on paper, but in reality, it is difficult to maintain and often requires conscious effort. Less than 2 percent of Americans actually make healthy life choices on a daily basis. An unhealthy lifestyle can lead to more than just heart attacks. Extra weight on the body can cause knee pain and back pain, along with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other chronic diseases.

A study done in Sweden on 20,000 men over 11 years showed that not smoking lowered men’s risk of heart attacks by 36 percent. Eating healthy lowered the risk of heart attacks by 18 percent, the risk for men having less than a 37 inch waist was lowered by 12 percent, and those who exercised about an hour a day had a 3 percent lower risk. If a man does all of the above combined, his percentage of a heart attack decreases by 69 percent.

Not only will keeping a healthier lifestyle reduce risk of heart attack, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol (which clogs arteries and causes heart attacks), but it will keep the bones healthier and stronger. Extra weight puts pressure on the knees which can lead to a trip to an orthopedist for pain due to knee osteoarthritis, which can eventually turn into a knee replacement. While older men may put off knee replacement surgery due to their age, having it done can be a literal lifesaver.

Think about this: an overweight, older man who smokes and is not very active begins to have knee pain. The knee pain grows worse, which causes the man to move around even less. His sedentary lifestyle leads to more overeating, overeating leads to more weight gain, and now there is even more pressure on the knee. The risk of heart attack is increasing each day.

If you are a gentleman 45 years or older your risk of having a heart attack becomes greater every year. While leading a healthier lifestyle seems like hard work now, your heart will thank you in the end.

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26/Sep/2014

AC Joint sprain Shoulder injury is extraordinarily common for over-head athletes. This includes the best La Jolla tennis players and the recreational Carlsbad yoga enthusiasts alike.

There are very few players in the NFL who are as explosive as Washington Redskins’ wide receiver Desean Jackson. Fortunately for Desean Jackson, his most recent injury should not have any affect on his explosiveness. Unfortunately, it is very hard for a wide receiver to catch the ball when he has a “separated shoulder.” Desean Jackson’s injury occurred during the game against Jacksonville last week and the diagnosis of was a sprained AC joint. However, he was surprisingly, able to play and perform very well despite the injury. But let’s take a look at the injury that threatened his Week 3 availability.

The AC joint connects the shoulder blade (acromion) and collarbone (clavicle). Ligaments surround and act to stabilize the AC joint. These ligaments are typically damaged if you fall and land directly onto the shoulder. This is a very typical injury in sports and often happens when players dive to make a play and cannot flip onto their back for the landing. Like many sprains the severity of the injury can vary. Grade I sprains would involve tears of microscopic fibers of the AC ligaments. Grade II sprains are more severe but typically only have cause slight alignment issues. Grade III sprains are complete tears and often involve both the AC ligament and the CC ligament. A severe sprain would put the AC joint significantly out of position. Symptoms of an AC joint sprain include pain at the top of the shoulder, swelling, bruising, decreased range of motion, and deformity.

AC Joint Sprain Shoulder injury Treatment:

Mild AC joint sprains do not require surgery and generally can heal completely with time and use of ice packs and slings. Grade II sprains, the AC joint can heal without surgery as well, but if there is any deformity involved with the injury, there may be ongoing pain in the AC joint. This pain could be due to arthritis development, injury to cartilage between the bones, or abnormal bone-to-bone contact. Grade III injuries with severe deformity typically require orthopedic surgery for complete return to form. The surgeon can reconstruct the damaged ligaments surrounding the AC joint. After a period of immobility and rehabilitation most people are able to return to form without much trouble, although as discussed above, lingering pain may persist. Even in mild AC joint sprains, shoulder exercises should be utilized to regain flexibility, strength, and range of motion. Some of these exercises include shoulder blade squeezes, pendular exercises, wall crawls, and static rotator cuff extensions. As the AC joint becomes stronger, more intermediate and advanced exercises can be utilized.

Desean Jackson and the Washington Redskins got pretty lucky that Jackson’s injury was not more serious. His injury was likely somewhere in between a grade I and grade II sprain. Through limiting weekly activity and pain management, Jackson was able to tough it out this weekend against his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles. He managed to have a very good game and the Washington training staff will likely install a similar regimen for this upcoming week, although the Redskins have a short turnaround, playing on Thursday night.

If you are faced with a shoulder injury, have our nationally recognized sports medicine physicians at San Diego Orthopedic Surgery Clinic care for you. Call for an appointment.

shahzaib1578

26/Sep/2014

Anterior Cruciate Ligament or ACL injuries happen to hundreds of thousands of people every year. This knee ligament injury usually ends play and can be extraordinarily painful. Although debilitating, they are treatable. You just have to make sure you know how severe your injury is and what you can do to treat the problem.

ACL injuries are actually quite common among people who participate in high action cutting sports, such as:

Soccer
Football
Basketball
Lacrosse

Levels of Severity with ACL Injuries

There are three categories of injuries based on what kind of damage has been done to the ACL:

Grade 1: This is the easiest ACL injury to heal. A grade one ACL injury is the result of the ligament stretching slightly. It does not cause the knee joint to become unstable.
Grade 2: This grade of injury is in the middle, and the least common of all knee injuries. A grade two type of injury happens when the ligament stretches to the point where it is unstable. It is more commonly known as a partial tear.
Grade 3: This ACL injury is the most severe. A grade three injury is labeled when the ligament is completely torn in half. This can cause the knee to become extremely unstable. Severe knee pain and an almost impossible time walking are common symptoms.

At the end of the day, the grade doesn’t really matter. To an orthopedist this injury boils down to those athletes that are able to compensate (ie, their knee is functionally stable) and those that can’t (ie, their knee is functionally unstable). Having a functionally stable knee means that that athlete is able to return to his/her level of customary play in cutting sports without the knee giving out. Generally speaking, one third of athletes will be able to return to play despite their injury with little to no intervention; one third of athletes will be able to return to play after engaging in directed physical therapy; one third will require surgery in order to return to play due to continued knee instability.

Treatments for ACL injuries

Non-Severe ACL Injuries

Since this is so common with sports athletes, there are specialists who work specifically with athletes. The goal is to help them get back into their sport of choice as quickly as possible.

Severe ACL Injuries (ie, unstable knee)

If you have been told that you have an ACL tear or are concerned about a knee injury, contact our award winning sports medicine doctors at San Diego Orthopedic Surgery Clinic.

shahzaib1578

23/Sep/2014

Baseball pitchers, tennis players and others whose activities entail repeatedly reaching above their heads are vulnerable to a relatively rare condition called suprascapular neuropathy. It causes shoulder pain and dysfunction.

As Dr. Dana P. Piasecki and associates noted in a review article for the journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Suprascapular Neuropathy results from the stress that arm stretching and rotating movements place on the shoulder. The suprascapular nerve is injured by excessive stretching, kinking and friction.

The nerve extends from the neck to the back of the shoulder, in a narrow passageway through bones and ligaments. The nerve can become compressed, or entrapped, at several points. Ganglion cysts and masses of soft tissues are sometimes responsible, though much of the time the compression is an overuse injury resulting in Suprascapular Neuropathy.

Retracted rotator cuff tears can cause Suprascapular Neuropathy in older patients. Nearly one-third of the time, suprascapular nerve injury is associated with shoulder dislocations or humerus fractures, according to the article.

More than 80 percent of those with suprascapular neuropathy report pain and spinal weakness. Patients have described the discomfort as a dull, ocassionally burning, ache in the shoulder that sometimes extends to the neck and arm. Reaching across the torso, or rotating the shoulder, may be particularly painful.

Most patients who undergo nonsurgical treatment for Suprascapular Neuropathy enjoy reduced pain. They regain shoulder function by modifying their physical activities, taking anti-inflammatory medication and receiving physical therapy.

For others, “muscle bulk and motor strength may be irreversibly lost” due to atrophy, Piasecki et al noted. Surgery might be necessary to allow for shoulder function to return. The procedure typically involves widening the spinoglenoid or suprascapular notch, points at which the nerve tends to sustain injuries. This can be done as open surgery or arthroscopically.

A study by Kim et al, involving 31 patients, found that the procedure produced long-term pain relief and restored strength in more than 90 percent of the Suprascapular Neuropathy cases. In another study, arthroscopic suprascapular notch decompression significantly helped all 10 patients. Surgeons sometimes perform open spinoglenoid decompression while arthroscopically repairing related labral tears.

In research featuring patients with spinoglenoid notch entrapment resulting from ganglion cysts, all six participants reported that they no longer felt any pain after undergoing decompression surgery. Another study showed that the procedure resulted in significant nerve recovery, pain relief and restored function for patients diagnosed with suprascapular neuropathy and large rotator cuff tears.

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CLASSIC LIST

Alleviate depression through exercise

Overuse shoulder injury common in baseball pitchers

Typing on a tablet strains the shoulders

Hip pain, hamstrings, and PRP injections

ACL injuries: facts and treatment options

Levels of Severity with ACL Injuries

Treatments for ACL injuries

Non-Severe ACL Injuries

Severe ACL Injuries (ie, unstable knee)

Studies show value of combining cardio with weight training

A healthier lifestyle may reduce heart attacks and other ailments

AC Joint Sprain Shoulder Injury- Action Jackson

AC Joint Sprain Shoulder injury Treatment:

ACL injuries-facts and treatment options

Levels of Severity with ACL Injuries

Treatments for ACL injuries

Non-Severe ACL Injuries

Severe ACL Injuries (ie, unstable knee)

Suprascapular neuropathy

How Acupuncture Can Help With Fibromyalgia Pain

ACL Reconstruction Surgery in San Diego

Fibromyalgia and Chiropractic

Physical Therapy and Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia – More than Just Aches and Pains

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