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Wrist sprains are a common injury that seems to affect those who participate in volleyball, tennis, and hockey at a somewhat higher rate. These sports involve excessive usage of the hands, which means that the wrists are always exposed to injuries. A wrist sprain occurs when a ligament is torn or stretched, and frequently occurs by falling over the wrist, or twisting it abnormally while playing a sport.
Your rotator cuff located in your shoulder and is a network of muscles – four, to be exact – that come together as tendons to form a covering around the head of the humerus and work to keep your arm in the shoulder socket. The rotator cuff also attaches the humerus to the shoulder blade and helps to lift and rotate your arm. Between the bone and rotator cuff is a lubricating sac – called a bursa – which lets the tendons within the rotator cuff glide smoothly and freely when your arm is moved.
Let’s start with the basics – an ankle sprain occurs when there is tearing of ankle ligaments. The most common types of ankle sprains involve the outside (lateral) portion of the joint and, as stated previously, can occur during virtually any activity.
Runner’s knee can affect one or both knees and is often seen in younger, recreational runners (and twice as many women as men – this is due to the fact that women tend to have wider hips), which results in a greater angling of the thighbone to the knee which, in turn, puts the kneecap(s) under more stress. Symptoms of runner’s knee include tenderness behind or around the patella (knee cap), usually toward its center. You may feel pain toward the back of the knee, a sense of cracking or that the knee’s giving out. The condition tends to worsens when athletes run uphill, downhill, or up and down stairs. A popping sensation is sometimes audible. In the worst cases, the knee may swell.
Having flat feet (which is when the arches on the inside of your feet are flattened, allowing the entirety of the sole to touch the floor when standing) is a relatively common condition, and can occur because arches didn’t develop properly during childhood, due to an injury, or from age and wear-and-tear.
Our hands serve many purposes – they help us eat, write, dress, drive, craft, grasp a tennis racquet, a paintbrush, and more – and, to work properly, require sensation and movement in the muscles, tendons, and joints. However, when a problem with one’s hand occurs, a substantial amount of care must be paid to all the different types of tissues to ensure that future function remains possible.
Some of the most common causes of knee pain are arthritis and disability. And, while there are many types of arthritis, the majority of knee pain is due to either osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and post-traumatic arthritis.
If you overstretch your Achilles tendon, it’s possible to either partially or completely rupture it – in this instance, a rupture involves either tearing or separating the tendon fibers, leaving the tendon in a state of injury where it can no longer perform its normal function.
After a break has occurred, it’s possible that small fragments of bone may stay within the joint. Wrist arthroscopy allows for the removal of these fragments, as well as the ability to align the broken pieces of bone and stabilize them by using pins, wires, or screws.
Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage that normally exists on the ends of bones (which allows the bones to glide easily in the joint) wears away, causing friction as the bones to rub against on another which, in turn, creates damage.