Baseball season is going full blast, the world’s best are competing for Olympic gold this month and new seasons are about to begin for the NFL, college football and even the NBA.
But as athletes and fans prepare to enjoy one of the busiest times of the sports year, West Tennessee-area doctors and trainers are more focused on injury reduction methods and rehabilitative therapies.
“There are a lot of cutting-edge therapies out there, and athletes, both amateur and professional, often want to try the latest thing to get better, faster and stronger,” said Fred Azar, MD, chief of staff at Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics and recent president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
“It’s our mission to keep them safe and direct them toward what works, even if that sometimes means extended rehabilitation. We don’t want to offer a quick fix now that could risk permanent injury later.”
Azar’s team of medical professionals serve as official sports medicine providers for the Memphis Grizzlies, Memphis Redbirds and the University of Memphis as well as more than a dozen area high schools. The medical practice treats a variety of student and professional athletes and offers myriad therapies to ensure that patients are able to return to competition as quickly as possible.
According to Azar, one therapeutic device regularly prescribed in numerous sports is the anti-gravity treadmill. Originally conceptualized by a NASA researcher two decades ago, the machines were introduced to the general public about a decade ago and have grown in popularity because of the ability of patients to exercise during rehabilitation with less pain and lower stress.
“These treadmills allow you to adjust your body weight and dial up the intensity you want during the therapy with less impact,” Azar said. “This can be an effective therapy for athletes and other patients who are suffering from lower extremity injuries.”
Another trend gaining traction locally and nationally is blood flow restriction therapy, said Darrell Turner, assistant athletic director for sports medicine at the University of Memphis.
Developed by physical therapist Johnny Owens to help wounded military personnel recover more quickly, the therapy involves applying a tourniquet system to arms or legs to restrict blood flow. Therapy lasts a few minutes and results are similar to those gained through longer sessions, according to Turner, who recently earned certification in the therapy in California.
“We can complete an entire set of exercises in six or seven minutes and get the same benefits of a 30-minute therapy session,” Turner said. “We’ve used this on a lot of athletes and across all kinds of sports with great results.”
The U of M began using the therapy this year.
“We’re starting to see really good gains from our athletes with regard to recovery and muscle growth,” Turner said. “We believe this is putting our athletes ahead of the curve. This is the next wave of technology to improve sports medicine, and we’re seeing the benefits of it.”
While helping athletes return to top form is a key component of sports medicine, preventing injuries is the ultimate goal of all trainers and practitioners, Azar said.
“One area that’s getting increasing attention is occurrence of concussions,” Azar said. “We’re seeing an increase in athletes suffering from concussions, and sadly we’re seeing the long-lasting effects of this kind of trauma.”
In fact, Azar said that although extensive media coverage has focused on football players who suffer concussions, another group of athletes now reporting increasing rates of concussions is young female soccer players.
“It's one of the fastest-growing segments to report concussions,” Azar said. “This may be due to the fact that we’re now more aware of the condition and also that sports are looking more closely at it and adopting stricter protocols, but we still need to be more proactive in reducing these injuries.”
Growing awareness is certainly a factor, according to a new study by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. The research found that concussions suffered by adolescent athletes are more common than previously estimated
The report surveyed the health records of nearly 9 million members of a large private payer insurance group and found that the largest group of youth patients diagnosed with concussions was those ages 15 to 19, followed by those 10 to 14. Nearly 30 percent were diagnosed in a doctor’s office, while 56 percent were diagnosed in an emergency room.
“Thirty-two percent of the individuals diagnosed with concussion were between the ages of 10 and 19 years old, with the largest increase in incidence between 2007 and 2014 in that age group,” said the study’s lead author, Alan L. Zhang, MD, the associate director of sports medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who has published numerous award-winning research articles and received the 2016 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Young Investigator Grant.
According to the report, the total number of concussions rose 60 percent from 2007 to 2014 among young athletes, with an astonishing 143 percent increase in reported concussions for youths 10 to 14 years old.
While that number is alarming, it also signals a necessary call to action, Azar said.
“One positive aspect of this is that we are more attuned to these types of injuries, and coaches and trainers are being much more careful with their athletes while more sports are adopting stricter injury protocols,” Azar said. “We’re moving beyond an era where players were just told to brush it off and get back on the field after suffering a collision or injury. The process now is to be more vigilant in trying to reduce and recognize injury, and that’s a welcome trend for everyone.”
RELATED LINKS:
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
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