Blog

Tennis injuries to hip and knee

Marc Darrow, MD, JD. Many tennis players take lessons on how to improve their open forehand stance and generate power on the return. As research has shown the open stance forehand is a pretty traumatic service and it can significantly impact the knee and hip. Over time the open forehand stroke can be a contributing factor in the development of a “tennis knee” or a “tennis hip.”  As these knee and hip injuries get more nagging, the player will employ braces, tapes, and anti-inflammatories to keep themselves on the court. As the injury progresses cortisone may be suggested. Eventually the

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Morton’s Neuroma

The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society describes Morton’s Neuroma as feeling like you are “walking on a marble,” and you have persistent pain in the ball of your foot. A neuroma is a benign tumor of a nerve. Morton’s neuroma is not actually a tumor, but a thickening of the tissue that surrounds the digital nerve leading to the toes. Many patients come into the office having been misdiagnosed with Morton’s neuroma. This condition affects the toe area, and is caused by nerves getting entangled at the base of the foot or in between the toes. Most often the

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De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis

We see many people at our practice with a long medical history of thumb pain and thumb pain treatments. These people would up seeing us because their long medical history of conservative  care treatments, possibly surgery or surgical recommendation did not help them and they are seeking stem cell therapy or PRP platelet rich plasma therapy as options. Perhaps as options and an alternative to some type of hand surgery. Thumb pain is often confused with wrist pain and carpal tunnel pain. The confusion with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the belief that there is some type of tendon involvement. The confusion with

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How long do stem cell treatments last?

When a patient comes into our office and we have made a realistic determination that they are a bone marrow derived stem cell candidate, the patient will often ask, “How long does the  treatment last?” Most times I will have a good idea why they are asking the question. The reason is because nothing they have tried up until this point has been a long-lasting success for them. In going over a hip or knee osteoarthritis patient’s history for example, we will discover a medical history filled with treatments that in many instances did provide short-term benefit. You have probably

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Complicated fusion surgery can be avoided if we look at the spinal ligaments

Marc Darrow, MD, JD. In our practice we often see patients who are in severe back pain. Many have already been recommended to some type of fusion surgery. Their fusion surgery recommendation may be based on pain and it may be based on an MRI image that while showing degenerative changes in the spine, may not be showing what is the cause of the person’s pain. These people have an MRI, X-ray and/or scan that may show an inaccurate picture of what is causing their pain. What do I mean by inaccurate picture? The MRI cannot show muscle spasms from

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Common golf hand and wrist injuries

Marc Darrow, MD, JD. Most golfers will try to play through a developing, worsening chronic pain. They will do so with wrist braces of varying types, hand wraps, anti-inflammatory medications, alterations to their grip and swings. A trip to their doctor will likely get them some stronger pain relivers and anti-inflammatories and a recommendation to a physical therapist. Some golfers may insist on a cortisone injection, such is their desire to return to play and resume normal pain-free daily activities. Eventually however all these remedies will not help keep them on the course and golf becomes one of those things

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