What Are the Best Sports Injury Treatments?
June 29, 2022
Your summer running sessions are starting to heat up in anticipation of a few end-of-season races. Normally, your training sessions start early in the morning before the pavement gets too hot, but recently you’ve been putting them off until later. Your knee just hurts too bad when you first get up, and the thought of pounding the blacktop right away is too much. Instead, you wait until the end of the day hoping that your knee loosens up a bit. While it feels a little better after getting it moving all day, your runs are still cut short by pain. In order to get your training schedule back on track, you need to meet with a doctor who understands sports injury treatments.
At Pain Treatment Specialists, our team of Harvard-trained pain doctors are experts in interventional pain medicine. This means that they’re able to help you resume your rigorous training after creating a customized sports injury treatment plan. One of the best reasons to schedule an appointment at Pain Treatment Specialists is their thorough approach to the prevention and care of athletic injuries. Not only will you be back on your feet quickly, but you’ll also know that your pain doctor is just a phone call away should your symptoms begin to appear again.
What Can I Expect from a Sports Injury Treatment?
Your consultation at Pain Treatment Specialists includes plenty of time for you to explain your knee pain and also learn about your diagnosis and treatment plan. A sports injury treatment plan aims to first address your pain symptoms, and then examine the best way to prevent this pain from occurring in the future. Some of the minimally invasive treatments used at our pain clinic include:
- Steroid Injection: A corticosteroid injection is one of the most common treatments for sports injuries because it works on the affected area to reduce swelling and pain. Your knee pain specialist determines the exact area for injection and then administers the corticosteroid shot, which contains powerful anti-inflammatory properties. This type of sports injury therapy allows you to resume training once you feel sufficient pain relief.
- Physical Therapy: During your PT sessions, you’ll be able to work with a physical therapist and identify potential causes of your knee pain. You’ll learn how your stride, gait, and technique may be contributing to your knee pain and how to best avoid these problems in the future. Your physical therapist also uses specific exercises, stretches, and heat/cold therapies to increase your knee’s range of motion and alleviate pain.
- Viscosupplementation: Also known as a lubricant injection, this treatment works well for patients who suffer from knee pain due to osteoarthritis. As we age, our knee’s natural lubricants break down, causing the knee’s bones and joints to rub together. Not only is this painful, but it also limits your mobility. Viscosupplementation adds an injection of hyaluronic acid to your knee, which is the main component of knee joint fluid. After the injection, your knee’s range of motion increases, and your pain levels decrease.
Not sure what type of sports injury treatment is right for you? Book a consultation at Pain Treatment Specialists and meet with one of our nationally recognized pain doctors for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.
What are the Most Common Types of Sports Injuries?
When you play hard and train hard, it’s only inevitable that you’ll have some form of a sports injury over your career. Minor injuries such as an arm sprain, rotator cuff soreness, or instability in your knees are easily treated with pain medicine. A major sports injury emergency such as a broken bone, numbness in the injured area, or overwhelming pain should be immediately treated in an emergency room.
A common type of sports injury occurs to your Achilles tendon. This is a thick tendon that connects your calf muscle to your heel, allowing you to walk. Sports such as basketball, football, or cross country that require a lot of running often cause Achilles injuries.
Another common sports injury is a jumper’s knee, also known as patellar tendonitis. This condition is caused by repetitive jumping motions and affects the tissues that connect muscles to bones. A symptom of jumper’s knee is pain below your kneecap, or weakness and stiffness when you jump, climb stairs, or kneel.
Runner’s knee is another chronic pain condition caused by the repetitive motion of your knee in one direction. The symptoms of runner’s knee include pain behind your kneecap that intensifies when you bend your knee.
When you meet with the knee pain specialists at Pain Treatment Specialists, you’ll learn about the underlying cause of your knee pain and the best methods for treatment.
How Long Should You Ice an Injury?
Knowing the basics of at-home knee pain treatment is useful if you begin to feel pain and swelling after a training session. Before you seek medical attention, you can try these at-home knee pain remedies and see if they provide sufficient relief.
- RICE: This stands for “rest, ice, compress, and elevate.” Rest your knee from strenuous movements like running, and follow with ice. How long should you ice an injury? A good rule of thumb is 20 minutes on, and 20 minutes off. Compress your knee with a bandage or brace, and elevate it whenever possible to increase blood flow and reduce swelling.
- Over-the-counter-pain medicine: Use aspirin or ibuprofen as needed to reduce pain and swelling.
You’ll find the best sports injury treatments at Pain Treatment Specialists, where our team of Harvard-trained knee pain doctors look forward to helping you resume your training schedule. With a customized treatment plan, you’ll be able to regain your confidence and prepare for your summer race schedule without knee pain.
Book a Consultation
Scheduling a consultation with one of our pain treatment specialists is one of the best ways to determine the proper solution for pain relief.
Meet our Harvard trained team
Dr. George Hanna
Harvard Medical School | NY & NJ Pain Specialist
Dr. Hanna received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed anesthesiology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School and a pain management fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital – Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hanna was then appointed Clinical Instructor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School – training new graduates for over 3 years in anesthesiology and pain management techniques at Massachusetts General Hospital.
