Lacrosse
The running and sports injury clinic was developed to provide a diagnostic service to injured runners and other athletes. In order to understand the cause of running injuries sophisticated and precise biomechanical analysis must be conducted. This type of evaluation includes a computerized gait analysis that utilizes a state of the art motion analysis laboratory. The motion analysis laboratory includes: specialized treadmill, 3D video analysis system with special software, surface electromyography system and ground reaction force plate.
Lacrosse Injuries Treatment
Lacrosse is a popular college sport in many schools and universities today. Originating from the game Native Americans used to play as part of a cultural and religious aspect of their lives, it has evolved to become a staple sport part of the modern American culture. There are several varieties of the lacrosse sport, including men’s and women’s lacrosse, box lacrosse, and intercrosse. The core of the spot is the same, but rules differ greatly, as well as some equipment for each of those styles.
COMMON INJURIES
Lacrosse is one of the few sports where injuries slightly differ from men to women playing the sport, due to the radical differences between the female and male version of the sport played. Such a difference is because in men’s lacrosse, players are allowed more contact in comparison to women’s version, thus men tend to suffer more injuries than their female counterparts.
Common lacrosse injuries complaints include: lower back pain, hamstring injuries, ankle injuries, knee injuries and wrist fractures. Nearly half of the time, injuries occur during contact or collision with another player, contact with the surface or the stick. Another quarter of injuries happen for no apparent reason, where no apparent contact has been registered. It is a full contact sport, and statistics show that injury rate is high, particularly among men’s lacrosse.
Lower back pain
Pain in the lower back region is a common complaint among lacrosse players. A number of reasons can pertain to that, but generally it is because of two common back injuries lacrosse players suffer – the degenerative disc disease and the herniated disc. The two conditions can be interconnected, as both are a result of excessive wear and tear, aging and degeneration of the discs due to lessened amount of water content found in the discs. The discs themselves are a jello-like vibration and impact cushioning discs found in between each vertebrae, which also hold the spine together. When they wear down and deteriorate, this causes back pain and is known as the main condition – the degenerative disc disease, or when it is located in the lower back – the lumbar disc disease.
Herniated disc, on the other hand, occurs when one of these discs tears and start leaking the fluid from the nucleus pulposus. Unlike the degenerative disc disease, a the rupture in the disc can also be caused by a sudden contact injury. When the fluid starts leaking, it also starts irritating the nerves that pass through the spine, specifically the sciatic nerve, which extends from lumbar (lower) spine all the way down to the foot. The symptoms experienced include lower back pain, and shooting pain down the thigh, buttocks, and the groin area.
Wrist pain
Wrist pain caused by strains and wrist fractures are recurring complaints among lacrosse players. Fracture, where the bone either completely breaks or partially cracks is a more serious injury, which needs immediate attention. The pain in the wrist that most lacrosse players experience, however, is that of a carpal tunnel syndrome. This is a condition that causes pain in the wrist due to an inflammation of the flexor tendons due to a pressured median nerve extending through the wrist, which pass the carpal tunnel located there. In order to determine whether the condition is really the carpal tunnel syndrome, a specialist would do a physical examination of the wrist and conduct a test, also known as the Tinel’s sign test, by tapping on the inside part of the wrist to test your reaction. If you feel some sort of pinching or a slight pain when this test is carried out, you most likely have the carpal tunnel syndrome.
INJURY PREVENTION
There are several basic steps to follow, like in any contact sport, which will help prevent a lacrosse injury happening while playing the sport.
- Be aware of your surroundings
- Wear protective gear
- Properly stretch before the training session and cool down afterwards
- Be aware of different types of pain
- Know your body and don’t over train and try to go beyond your physical capabilities.
In case where you have sustained an injury and it appears to be mild, apply the ‘RICE’ technique, which revolves around resting after the injury, applying ice and compression to the injured zone and elevating it.
TREATMENT AT OUR CLINIC
At NYCSPT, we offer a range of treatments and diagnostic methods for injured athletes. For injuries that many orthopedic surgeons recommend surgery as the best or only solution, we do not believe it is so. Surgery should be always left as the last possible treatment, as there are a number of alternative treatments available for injured athletes. In most cases, alternative non-invasive treatment can enable the athlete to carry on with his or her career, while after surgery, the tendons oftentimes do not rehabilitate to their full, pre-injury strength. For such traumas, we have extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT), which treats the injury through precise application of small shockwaves on the injured area, which in turn prompts an increased bloodflow to the injured soft tissue and hastens the healing process.
Here, we have an expert team of specialists, who not only understand the differences across various orthopedic disciplines and sports medicine, but also have a thorough understanding of neuromusculoskeletal conditions and the pathology behind them. With the help of innovative technology available at our clinic, this enables us to diagnose and evaluate the seriousness of the injury, as well as develop a personal rehabilitative plan to treat your it.
Additionally, we also use a virtual reality in an immersive environment technology to rehabilitate injuries and improve human locomotion. This technology is also known as computer assisted rehabilitation environment (CAREN), which evaluates the movement strategies currently employed by the body, and sets up the user to learn new movement strategies, with focus on how those movements will impact the body. This, in combination with the physiotherapy and manual treatment methods, can be used both for recovery from an injury, as well as a performance enhancing technique.