Blog

Alternatives to hip labrum arthroscopic surgery

Marc Darrow, MD. We are getting many emails from people who are waiting for a hip arthroscopic surgery or trying to find other solutions. They have a lot of pain, mostly a dull nuisance type pain that climbs in intensity when they try to do sports or sometimes while simply walking. Many have a hip that clicks, locks, and gets stuck in mid-step. If the person is a master’s age athlete and the decades of active sports involvement have caused significant hip pain, then he/she may be recommended to a hip arthroscopy surgery as a means to preserve the hip

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Are MRIs sending people to back surgery who don’t need it?

There is thinking in the medical community that if you want to avoid a back surgery, do not get an MRI. This is not a new thought, the controversies surrounding MRI interpretation sending people to a back surgery that they did not need has been going on for years. BUT, the patients think they need back pain surgery to get back pain relief. “Lumbar spine diagnostic imaging reports may cause patient and clinician concern when clinically unimportant findings are not explicitly described as benign.” New research (1) says: “Lumbar spine diagnostic imaging reports may cause patient and clinician concern when

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Failed Ankle Surgery

Marc Darrow, MD. JD. We do get many emails about ankle pain. Some people write that they are on a waiting list for an ankle fusion, sometimes one, sometimes both ankles, and while they are waiting, they want to know if bone marrow aspirate concentrate stem cell therapy can be an option for them. Others write that the are bone on bone and have lost all the cartilage in their ankle, can we help? The risks and rewards of ankle arthrodesis or ankle fusion and total ankle replacement. Recent research in the British medical bulletin (1) discuss the risks and

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Jumper’s Knee – Patella tendinopathy

Marc Darrow, MD., JD.  Over the years we have seen a lot of people with knee problems. Many of them with problems of the patellar tendon. These people have had many treatments including painkillers and anti-inflammatories, cortisone injections, physical therapy, rest, some of the them wear big braces on their knees some try kinesio taping. They are doing a consult with us because they are still looking for help. After an email or a phone call we assesses the person’s situation. If we feel they are a realistic candidate for treatment, they come in for a consultation where we can

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Achilles Tendon tears and tendinopathy

People share their stories with us every day. Some have had dozens of physical therapy sessions, some have had more than a dozen of iontophoresis – electric stimulation treatments. Some have had all these treatments and a few steroid shots and various applications of different kinesiology tapes too. Even after all this they are exploring our treatments because: “none of these worked long-term for me.” The patient experience. Is it a complete rupture or a partial rupture? Do I need the surgery or not?  Different doctors give different recommendations In a September 2019 study, (1) doctors give a report on

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Research on Vitamin D and knee pain

Vitamin D can be an important supplement in supporting various types of knee osteoarthritis treatments. Research as outlined below suggests that vitamin D supplementation can help alleviate pain and symptoms related to degenerative knee disease. What I hope to achieve in this article is that if you have a realistic expectation of what vitamin D can actually help you with and what it can’t, you will probably have good results from vitamin D supplementation. Short-term vitamin D supplementation should not be expected to reverse years of accelerated degenerative damage in the knee When it comes to vitamins and vitamin supplementation

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