Participation in sports should be alert to joint injuries

  The “alien” Ronaldo had to leave the green field for a long time because he had two operations for cruciate ligament damage in his knee. -World Footballer of the Year. This is a soft tissue injury caused by sports. It should be noted that this kind of joint soft tissue injury is not the “patent” of athletes, but more common in ordinary people. Athletes have good muscle strength, quick response, good protection of the joints, coupled with the supervision of coaches and professional team doctors, their injuries are often detected in time, timely treatment, less chance of developing into serious pathology; while the daily life of sports fans, especially young people, they are very easy to cause joint injuries in sports activities, due to insufficient awareness of protection, poor protective measures. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to joint soft tissue injury and the resulting joint instability. No problem if the bone is fine?  Case: Xiao Wang, a high school junior. When he played basketball, he sprained his knee joint, and the pain and swelling did not improve for more than a week. Later, the swelling went down, but he was afraid to run fast and turn, afraid to participate in sports because of the pain and fear in the joint, and had to walk sideways when going up and down stairs or up and down slopes. Six months later, Xiao Wang resumed his normal life with confidence.  Expert opinion: This is a typical example of one of the many cases where there was no fracture, but a ruptured ligament in the knee joint led to loose and unstable joint, and secondary articular cartilage and meniscal damage occurred due to missed diagnosis and delayed treatment. Such cases are frequently seen in the outpatient clinical practice of orthopedic sports medicine at Zhongshan Hospital. Some statistics show that 80% of joint sprains are ligament or cartilage injuries with no fractures, but there is a high rate of underdiagnosis in general orthopedic outpatient clinics.  Joint injuries are often the result of damage to these soft tissues. Although ordinary X-rays can check whether the bone is damaged, but can not see the soft tissue problems. Xiao Wang’s knee joint instability, walking with injury and repeated joint friction due to a delay of more than half a year resulted in meniscal damage and exfoliative osteochondritis, which caused a lot of damage to the knee joint. Even though this surgery was successful, the damage to the cartilage could not be reversed and could only be removed, which would greatly accelerate the onset of osteoarthritis.  The doctor at the clinic let him go without emphasizing strict restrictions on shoulder joint activities after he had a dislocated shoulder from an accidental fall, which later became a habitual dislocation. He said that from the first dislocation to now, he had dislocated his shoulder more than ten times in six months, and that he would get sick when he moved something heavy, carried a bucket of water, or even took a bus and pulled the handle, and once he got sick, his arm fell off when he was wearing clothes.  Expert opinion: Wang Weiming, a professor of orthopedics at Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University, said that this is a habitual dislocation of the shoulder joint, and the latest method used to treat the disease is the minimally invasive arthroscopic technique, which involves inserting three rice-sized titanium rivets with sutures into the bone in front of his diseased joint pelvis to carefully sew up the ruptured joint capsule, with each rivet being able to withstand 50-60 kg of tension. With such strong sutures, he started shoulder mobility exercises on the third day after surgery, avoiding secondary frozen shoulder caused by braking of the shoulder joint after traditional surgery. Three weeks later, his arm was completely mobile and he no longer had to worry about dislocation.  Injuries to the knee and shoulder joints mentioned above are not only very common in daily life and sports, but will cause serious joint sequelae. Because these injuries often occur suddenly, it is important to recognize and treat them, as well as to rehabilitate them after treatment. First, it is important to recognize that it is important to seek medical attention when problems arise, and that some injuries may require surgery to achieve treatment, such as arthroscopic surgery. Many joint surgeries can now be done under minimally invasive arthroscopic conditions, resulting in faster recovery, less trauma, less pain, and less cost. Secondly, the rehabilitation of joint injuries is very important. “Five points of treatment, five points of rehabilitation”, all rehabilitation programs should be carried out under the guidance of a doctor.