What is podiatric sports medicine?
Podiatric sports medicine is a specialized area of podiatry dedicated to both preventing and managing lower body injuries associated with exercise or sports.
What causes a sports injury?
Active lifestyles can quickly lead to foot and ankle injury or strain. Sports injuries often affect the tendons, ligaments, or muscles that connect your joints and bones. When sports injuries occur in the feet and ankles, they’re usually due to:
- Overuse: repetitive activities such as long-distance running
- Incorrect training: pushing your body too hard or too fast
- Ankle rolling: a rotation of the foot where the ankle touches the ground
- Foot structure: flat feet or high arches affect your gait and cause strain
You can also sustain a sports injury to your feet or ankles by wearing footwear that doesn’t support your foot or is inappropriate for a specific activity.
What are the symptoms of a foot-related sports injury?
Sports injuries are either caused by repetitive stress or traumas that occur during high-impact sports. Common foot and ankle sports injuries include:
- Strains or sprains: damage to soft tissues or ligaments
- Plantar fasciitis: strain to the foot’s plantar fascia tissue
- Tendonitis: inflammation of tendons that attach bones to muscles
- Shin splints: pain and inflammation along your tibia (shinbone)
- Fractures: injury to foot and ankle bones that includes cracks, breaks, and bruises
How are sports injuries diagnosed and treated?
Dr. Rambacher leverages his extensive sports medicine training to provide advanced treatments that reduce your downtime and restore your active lifestyle as quickly as possible.
During your appointment, he reviews your symptoms and examines your foot or ankle injury. To isolate the source of your pain, he may recommend digital X-ray imaging to evaluate the injury and aid in diagnosis.
For mild sports injuries, Dr. Rambacher recommends the PRICE approach:
- Protect
- Rest
- Ice
- Compress
- Elevate
In combination with over-the-counter pain relievers, the PRICE approach can ease your pain, inflammation, and swelling.
Dr. Rambacher also offers sports medicine treatments, such as:
- Steroid injections to reduce inflammation and pain
- Braces or orthotics to improve mobility and reduce pain
- Biomechanical correction to improve foot mechanics and alignment
- Minimally invasive surgeries to repair extensive tissue damage or fractures
Dr. Rambacher is a Fellow of the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. Don’t wait another minute to get back in the game. Call Podiatry Hotline Inc., or schedule a sports medicine appointment online today.
