Sports Medicine News

LAS VEGAS — Compared with non-smokers, patients who sustain rotator cuff tears and smoke have clinically worse function and pain scores, according to data presented here.

LAS VEGAS — Orthopedists who decide to surgically manage pediatric athletes with patellar instability, and lateral patellar subluxation in particular, should guard against complications, such as knee stiffness and patellar fractures, according to a presenter at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.

LAS VEGAS — Compared with professional baseball pitchers who underwent primary UCL reconstruction, research presented here indicates professional pitchers who require revision UCL reconstruction have a more difficult time returning to play at the same major league level.

LAS VEGAS — Adolescent baseball pitchers who are taller, throw harder and pitch for multiple teams are more likely to have a history of shoulder and elbow injuries than their peers, according to research presented here.

Patients who underwent ACL reconstruction during adolescence experienced significantly more radiographically visible osteoarthritic changes in their operated knee vs. the uninvolved contralateral knee in the long term, with clinical outcomes and health-related quality of life similar to that seen in healthy controls, according to researchers.

At 5 years after undergoing matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte implantation, researchers found patients’ outcomes were unaffected by whether the patients were assigned to accelerated or delayed weight-bearing activities.

Results from a recently published study demonstrated that patients who underwent ACL reconstruction and did not return-to-play may have been influenced by the fear of pain despite not having significant pain present.

Patients with ACL injuries had specific alterations in the sensorimotor control of lower limbs as indicated by deviations in muscular activity between both the injured and non-injured sides and between antagonistic muscle activity of the injured and non-injured sides, according to study results.

After ACL reconstruction, pediatric and adolescent patients treated with femoral nerve block for postoperative analgesia experienced significant isokinetic deficits in knee extension and flexion strength compared with patients who did not receive a nerve block, researchers found.

In pediatric patients, delayed ACL reconstruction increased the risks of secondary meniscal and chondral injuries, according to study results.