Some athletes are bothered by a painful snapping at the hip when moving the leg from a flexed to an extended position. There can be a variety of reasons why this happens. Some occur outside the joint such as when a tendon rubs over a bony prominence. Others are caused by something going on inside the joint. It could be a tear in the labrum (rim of cartilage around the hip socket) or a loose fragment inside the joint.

Full-thickness cartilage defects (down to the bone) in the knee come with two major problems. First, cartilage doesn't heal well. Second, treatment often results in failure. One of the newer treatment options is autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). It works well, but it is limited to younger patients. Older adults (45 years old and older) have been excluded from this approach -- until now.

Athletes involved in overhead throwing sports are at risk for a problem at the elbow called osteochondritis dissecans (OCD). Baseball pitchers and racket-sport players are affected most often. Sometimes gymnasts who put weight through the arms develop this condition, too. It can be very disabling. Treatment that enables them to return to full participation in their sport is a challenge.

Knee dislocations are known to cause severe ligament damage with knee joint instability. If the blood vessels and local nerves in the area are damaged, the risk of losing the leg is much higher. The authors of this article report that such damage can occur even with a single ligament rupture in the knee. And what appears to be minor trauma (e.g., sports injury, fall from standing) can also cause serious damage to the blood vessels.

In this report from Australia, the results of surgical treatment for proximal hamstring syndrome are discussed. The sciatic nerve is released from the hamstring muscle where the two have become tethered or attached by adhesions or scar tissue. Proximal refers to the upper portion of the hamstring muscle where it attaches to the ischial tuberosity (the part of the pelvic bone that we sit on).

If you are over 40 years old and you've had X-rays of your spine, you might be convinced that any back pain you have is coming from those joints. That's because as we age, signs of degeneration are abundant. Bone spurs grow around the joints, the joint cartilage thickens and reduces movement, and overgrowth of the joint margins blocks motion.

Opioid (narcotic) medications for pain relief have been in the center of an ongoing controversy for years now. Yes, they provide pain relief for pain sufferers. But they are potentially addictive. And one of the most severe adverse side effects is death from unintentional overdose.

If you've ever suffered from chronic (day in and day out) neck, back, shoulder, or other muscle pain, you may have tried trigger point therapy. Needles are placed in painful areas of the muscles. Then a numbing agent and/or inflammatory drug such as steroids is injected at that spot. This treatment technique is the form of treatment we call trigger point therapy. Some people swear by it. Others receive little or no apparent benefit.

Patients who have cauda equina syndrome usually have lower back pain, sciatica on one side or both, leg weakness, change in sensation in the "saddle" area, and possible loss of bowel or bladder. This is caused by pressure on the nerves.

The cervical spine, or the upper part and the neck, can be hurt in many ways, from trauma and injury to osteoarthritis, the so-called wear and tear arthritis. Most often, conservative - nonsurgical treatment- is all that's needed to help the patient heal, but there are times when surgery is necessary.

The senior author of this article developed a minimally invasive way to treat posterior ankle impingement. Impingement is the pinching of soft tissue, bone fragments, or scar tissue causing painful and limited ankle motion. Plantar flexion (pointing the toe) is affected most often.

One good way to decide what's the best course of treatment in hand therapy is to do a search of articles published on a topic of interest. In this case, the focus is on rehab for surgically repaired extensor tendon injuries. What works best: immobilization (no movement), early but controlled mobilization (some movement), or early and active mobilization (full movement)?

In this study from Italy, researchers examine the type of hip fractures that occur in Parkinson patients. They offer suggestions for hip fracture prevention in this particular group of patients. This is important because Parkinson disease leaves patients with poor balance, rigidity, loss of arm movements, and a tendency to fall backwards or sideways. All of those factors increase the risk of falling and hip fractures.

Orthopedic surgeons rely on clinical tests to help them diagnose knee problems. A common knee injury among athletes is an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. The most commonly used test for this problem is called the Lachman test. This test is routinely used despite the fact that the Pivot-shift test may be more reliable. In this article, the advantages and disadvantages of each test are presented.

People around the world suffer from the global (many different) symptoms of fibromyalgia. In this report from Spain, the effects of an aquatics program are measured in women with fibromyalgia compared with a healthy women of the same age, weight, education, and physical fitness). No one in the control group had fibromyalgia, symptoms of fibromyalgia, or any other known illness. The goal was to see how exercising in warm water affects the global symptoms of fibromyalgia.