Sports Medicine

Sports medicine is a specialty area of orthopedics concerned with treating and preventing injuries to the shoulder, elbow, and knee that result from sports activities.

From the weekend warrior to the high performance professional athlete, many face the problem of an injury that stems from exercise or high-impact activity. 

Shoulder

Shoulder injuries are common to athletes who play tennis, golf, and baseball. The overhead motion of a tennis serve, a pitching motion, and golf swing all serve to aggravate the shoulder joint and tendons surrounding it.

Two of the most common diagnoses given are shoulder bursitis or shoulder tendinitis. Shoulder bursitis and rotator cuff tendinitis are both just a way of saying that there is inflammation of a particular area within the shoulder.

Elbow

One of the more common ailments of the elbow is spurs. Years of overhead activities and repetitive motions such as pitching a ball, swinging a racket or club, and other similar movements typically precipitate these spurs. Motion in the joint produces swollen bone linings that develop spurs.

Knee

The knee has four basic ligaments holding it in place, one at each side to stop the bones from sliding sideways, and two crossing over in the middle to stop the bones from sliding forward and backward. There are several common knee problems that affect this area:

• Meniscus tears, which may cause your knees to catch or lock when you move
• Ligament tears, which produce an unstable knee
• Cartilage wear
• Damage to the cartilage under the kneecap

All of the physicians at Chesapeake Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center are specially trained to treat musculoskeletal ailments resulting from athletic activities. For a sports medicine appointment, call us today at (410) 768-5555 or (888) 313-5209 or request an appointment.