Sports injuries | Specialist Hip & Knee Surgery

Ligament Injuries

Manoj Sood — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:06:16 +0000

The main ligaments in the knee are the medial and lateral collateral ligaments and the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. These different ligaments have different restraining functions in the knee and are injured by different injury mechanisms.

The most commonly injured ligaments are the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL).

The ACL is typically injured by a twisting mechanism, often non-contact during football. Patients often hear a “pop” and the knee usually swells quickly after the injury.

The MCL is usually injured by a contact blow to the outer side of the knee. MCL injuries typically heal without surgery but sometimes the knee needs to be fitted with a brace. ACL ruptures will not heal and in many cases an ACL reconstruction is required. We perform arthroscopic (“key-hole”) ACL reconstruction usually using a hamstring graft. We also perform revision (re-do) ACL reconstruction in those patients who re injure and tear their ACL reconstructions or who have been referred to us with poorly functioning ACL grafts.

Reconstructed ACL using hamstring graft

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Articular Cartilage Surgery

Manoj Sood — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:58:01 +0000

Articular cartilage is a tough hyaline cartilage that covers the ends of the bones that make up the knee joint. Knee injuries can cause damage to the articular cartilage (full or partial thickness) and this damage does not spontaneously heal. Loose flaps of cartilage can irritate the joint and these can be dealt with at the time of keyhole surgery by shaving the flaps or using a radiofrequency device to ablate the flaps and smooth the remaining cartilage (chondroplasty) often resulting in significant improvement in symptoms.

Typically, however, some symptoms remain if the cartilage defect is full thickness (like a crater). The risk of subsequent arthritic changes is also increased, and so cartilage repair techniques are often employed to tresat such cartilage injuries.

: Full thickness articular cartilage injury

Articular Cartilage Injury Treatment

Specific treatment options are available to treat such cartilage defects. Some, such as microfracture, stimulate repair with a less tough cartilage (fibrocartilage) but one that can sucessfully relieve symptoms. Other techniques, such as osteochondral autologous transfer surgery (OATS) aim to transplant cartilage from an uninjured and non-weightbearing part of the joint to an injured weight-bearing part. Other techniques, such as autologous cartilage implantation (ACI) try to produce a cartilage similar to the original hyaline articular cartilage by using a tissue laboratory to grow cartilage from a very small piece of cartilage taken from the injured knee.

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Meniscal Cysts

Manoj Sood — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:55:00 +0000

These are swellings that appear on the side of the knee joint. Patients are aware of a lump developing on the outside of the knee. The lump is often, but not always, painful as the meniscal cyst is associated with a meniscal tear.

Meniscal cysts arise from a torn meniscus that has a type of tear called a horizontal cleavage tear or a complex tear that includes a horizontal component. They most commonly arise from the lateral (outer) meniscus. They are filled with gel-like joint fluid.

Different treatments have been proposed to remove these cysts. We favour internal decompression (drainage) of the cyst after trimming the horizontal tear during an arthroscopy. This is usually successful in resolving the problem.

Decompression of a meniscal cyst after trimming associated tear. Gel-like cyst fluid is seen draining from the cyst

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Physiotherapy

Manoj Sood — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:24:36 +0000

We aim to get all sports people safely back to their sport as soon as possible after an injury using aggressive rehabilitation techniques in combination with non-surgical and surgical techniques as necessary. We have access to the latest non-surgical treatments, including, mechanical shock-wave therapy and platelet-rich plasma injections which can both be very effective in resistant tendon disorders. We strongly believe in the concept of “prehabilitation”, where indicated, whereby patients with significant muscle wasting as a result of an injury, undergo intensive muscle strengthening physiotherapy before any surgical intervention. This helps to optimise recovery from surgery and from the injury more generally.

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Sports Injury Treament

Manoj Sood — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:22:46 +0000

We understand the importance of prompt diagnosis and early treatment in getting sports people back to their sport. We have a huge experience of treating all types of sports injuries, in a wide variety of people ranging from occasional participants in sport through to amateur, semi-professional and professional athletes. Mr Sood treats a number of semi-professional and professional sports people and the specialist Physiotherapists who work alongside him in the practice are highly experienced in the treatment of sports injuries and have past and current affiliations to Sports Clubs. For full details please view the profiles section.

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