Joey (host): They affect many that play sports, so we're discussing common injuries in non-professional athletes. Our guest, Dr. Ravi Vaswani. He's an orthopedic surgeon with BayCare. This is BayCare Health Chat. Thanks for joining us. I am Joey Wahler. Hi there, Dr. Vaswani. Welcome.  

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Hi Joey. Thank you so much for having me. 

Joey (host): Thank you so much for hopping aboard. So first, what would you say from your experience, are the most common injuries you see in these nonpro athletes?

Whether they're playing sports in school or are older weekend warriors, so to speak. Right.  

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Yeah, exactly. That's a great way of putting it. You know, the weekend warriors are sort of growing. I see a lot more in my office and, in general, people are playing more sports and are trying to be more active than they ever have been.

And with that, we're also seeing a rise in the injuries that we see from sports in these non-professional athletes. In particular, the most common injuries that I see are ankle injuries. Within that, the most common is ankle sprains. An ankle sprain happens when your foot turns inward, such as when you're trying to change directions, but your foot gets caught and that causes the ankle to roll.

And when that happens, the ankle ligaments then stretch. They can even tear in the very severe forms of ankle sprains. And that's what leads to pain and swelling that you get from an ankle sprain. Beyond ankle sprains, you can also have ankle fractures, and it can be really hard to differentiate between the two.

So, it's really important to see a doctor when you have an ankle injury to make sure it's not something more serious or more severe than what you may think it is. 

Joey (host): Absolutely. How about muscle pulls, especially lower body quads, et cetera?   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Yeah, definitely. So, muscle pulls are also very common in non-professional athletes. Some of the common ones that you just mentioned, the quadriceps, that's the big muscle on the front of your thigh. Very common to get a strain or muscle pull for that. The hamstring, which is the big muscle on the back of the thigh, that also is a very common muscle to get pulled.

Calf muscle is also another very common thing that I see as well. And I think that the reason that we see a lot of these in the non-professional athletes is that typically these muscle pulls are related to lack of conditioning or not spending enough time outside of that sport working on things like strengthening and conditioning exercises.  

Joey (host): Speaking of which, how about the importance of stretching? We all know when working out, it may not be glamorous, if you will, but it's really important and underrated and probably underutilized, right?  

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Absolutely. Yeah. Stretching is vital, especially if you're gonna be playing a sport. Basically, when we say stretching, we mean stretching the tendons and the muscles around the body, and that really helps to keep them limber and not tight. That helps to prevent injury both before and after playing a sport.

If you look at professional athletes, when they go out and play a game, they're dedicating an hour, two hours to stretching and maintenance exercises before and after the game. So, that's why even though a non-professional athlete may not be playing at the same level, they're still using their body in a similar fashion.

So, it's still really important for them to dedicate time to the stretching exercises as well.

Joey (host): Gotcha. So sticking with the same theme for a moment, Doc, how often would you say injuries in non-pro athletes are preventable in some way? And what's your advice for trying to avoid them besides stretching, which you just covered.   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: I'd say that it's somewhat of a difficult question to answer because when you play a sport, you're always gonna be at some risk of an injury and it's really hard to say how much of that can be prevented by stretching and doing the maintenance exercises.

Now,. that being said, there are definitely certain things that we see less frequently in professional athletes, for example, compared to non-professional athletes, likely because of that difference in stretching and maintenance exercises such as the muscle pulls. Sometimes, even ankle sprains are less common. So those are things where non-professional athletes can really help themselves and hopefully decrease the injuries they get by dedicating some time to those types of exercises.

Joey (host): Okay. How about this? At what point would you say someone typically should seek treatment if they think they have an issue? Where's that line between discomfort and out now pain that needs to be addressed?   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: So, I really encourage people that when you have an injury, you can maybe see if you feel like it's somewhat minor to see if it may get better after a short amount of time. But really, I really encourage people  to seek attention and see a doctor pretty soon after injury.

Certainly, if it's a more serious injury such as one where you can't walk, or you have a more amount of swelling and pain in the part that's injured. You should definitely see a doctor immediately for those types of injuries. But even other types of injuries where you may think it's a little bit more minor, if it's really not going away by simple methods that you're trying, you should really try and see a doctor as soon as you can. Because I've seen a lot of injuries where people may think it's like a minor sprain or something not too serious, but it lingers and it turns out to be something much worse.  

Joey (host): So always better safe than sorry there.

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Exactly, yes.

Joey (host): Switching gears a bit, you covered earlier some acute type injuries, muscle pulls, et cetera. How about some chronic conditions that athletes, especially older ones suffer from, and what's your general advice for addressing those when you know you kind of have to live with something but you're trying to manage it?   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, the more you play a sport and are active, you are unfortunately at a little bit of increased risk for more chronic conditions, as you mentioned, as well. Some of those include tendonitis, which is inflammation of the tendon and the muscle in the body. Some examples of that are like Achilles tendonitis in the heel, rotator cuff tendonitis in the shoulder. You can get wrist tendonitis as well. 

And, in addition to tendonitis, some athletes can also develop something called arthritis. Arthritis happens at the joints, so most commonly in the knee, in the hip, you can also get in the shoulder, and that's when you have the breakdown of cartilage. And that's really just due to wear and tear over time. So if you're playing a sport, especially a more higher impact sport like basketball and football, those kinds of sports, which put a lot of stress on the body, it can open you up to more chronic conditions as well.  

Joey (host): Let's talk a little bit about treatment. What are some common nonsurgical treatments for non-professional athletes? What are the ones that you perform the most?   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: It definitely varies based on the body part and what the specific injury is, but there are some general themes that I use for nonprofessional athletes. Definitely initially, if based on, the history and the exam I feel like the injury is more like a muscle pull or a sprain, something that, almost always can be treated without surgery. Then, I'll get that athlete into physical therapy. 

Physical therapy is great for a few reasons. One, it helps with the stretching that we mentioned before. There are also different modalities that the physical therapist can use to help with swelling and pain as well. That's one thing.

Another thing is using common things to help with pain and swelling, such as rest, ice, compression, elevation, and honestly, a lot of athletes just need some rest and some time away from the sport. So that can be sometimes just a few days, but sometimes it needs to be a few weeks if the injury is more severe. And after that, I typically see the athlete back. And as long as they're doing well, then they can go back to their sport.

Joey (host): Yeah, that rest part you mentioned, Doc, is something again. Kind of like stretching, isn't it, in the sense that people often overlook it, don't they?   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Definitely. Yeah. Some people become very intense about playing sports and they sometimes forget to take rest and to give their body time to recuperate. And that's definitely one of the bigger reasons that we're seeing increases in injuries.

And so it then translates to when you are injured, you have to take some rest, you have to take some time away from the sport to give your body time to heal.  

Joey (host): Yeah, no question about that. A couple of other things before we let you go. If surgery is needed, what are the most common procedures you perform?   

Ravi Vaswani, MD: For non-professional athletes, there are a few injuries that, unfortunately, almost always require surgery. Some of those include ACL tears in the knee. That's the anterior cruciate ligament, one of the most important ligaments of the knee. When you tear that., you almost always need surgery for it if you're an athlete.  

Another common one is ankle fractures. We mentioned talk about ankle sprains that almost always can be treated without surgery. In contrast, if it's more severe and it's an ankle fracture, a lot of times those need surgery. And a, a third injury is a rotator cuff tear in the shoulder. So the rotator cuff is a group of muscles that help you move your shoulder in all different directions.

So, it's very important in overhead sports like tennis, baseball, those kinds of sports. And if you do have a severe tear of that, then it almost always means surgery rather than trying non-operative treatment.  

Joey (host): And in summary here, Doctor, since overdoing things or perhaps at times, performing a sport or a certain part of it improperly. Since that seems to be a common factor here in causing at least some of these injuries. What's your best advice to athletes for doing things both correctly and the right amount?

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Again, these being non-professional athletes, I think that a lot of these athletes try to go into a sport or try to pick up a sport without the proper training. Either they perceive that they can do it based on past experiences, or they just wanna sort of skip the training part, and they just want to go and, play with their friends. But that being said, it's really important for any sport to take time to learn proper form, to work on things like footwork and stretching, things like that, that are really important, in terms of the mechanics of the game because that will then pay off and hopefully help to prevent injuries in the future.  

Joey (host): And with so many other things in life, it's never too late to learn some new things, right? No matter how old you are as an athlete.

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Absolutely, I completely agree with that. I work a tennis center where there are a lot of older athletes, and the coaches there really emphasize working on things like footwork and maintenance exercises.

And, because of that, they have actually seen decreases in injury. And so, I think that, that's something that, if more non-professional athletes sort of dedicated some time to that, then hopefully that would allow them to play more in the long run and stay on the field or court longer.   

Joey (host): Tennis is a great example, isn't it, Doc? Because the older you get, the more you have to play the angles and stop just trying to hit the heck out of the ball. Right?  

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Yeah, that's exactly right. Yes.

Joey (host): Well, folks, we trust you are now more familiar with common injuries in non-pro athletes. Dr. Ravi Vaswani, great advice indeed. Thanks so much again.  

Ravi Vaswani, MD: Thank you so much, Joey.   

Joey (host): And to connect with a provider, please do visit BayCare.org. Please remember as well to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other BayCare podcasts. And for more health tips and updates, please follow BayCare on your social channels. If you found this podcast informative, please do share it on your social media and check out all the other interesting podcasts in BayCare's library as well.

I'm Joey Wahler. And thanks so much again for being part of BayCare HealthChat.