I am surprised teams don’t do preemptive imaging such as before the season or maybe mid season to screen high risk players such as WRs, DBs, RBs for knee, Achilles, or other joint damage. I would think in some cases finding small tears and or structural damage early could lead to better treatments/therapy to prevent a more catastrophic injury. I’m guessing catastrophic tears are a result of minute degeneration and finding those could save careers. Thoughts?
(1) a lot of players with suspected issues already get MRIs. (i.e., players who are banged up on Sunday often get MRIs that we don't even know about on Monday).
(2) a league that keeps adding games to the schedule, including Thursday night, still is more interested in $$$ than player health.
Same with football players. Every guy would wind up on IR if you did pre-emptive scans.
This statement from Eric is true. A friend of mine was at the Hospital for Special Surgery visiting an orthopedic for his knee a few years ago. He told me that Janoris Jenkins walked in to get an mri done. There was no mention of this in the injury report.
I think this happens a lot.
I don't know how practical it'd be, but I guess the logic would be to treat the small damage before it
becomes major damage. ie rest for 4 weeks v season ending surgery, or small surgery v big surgery
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With that said, what can they do to prevent it? Let's say a guy has an acl warning sign. How do they stop a ligament from tearing? If it is an OL, they can wear a brace but what about a WR or DB?
I don't know how practical it'd be, but I guess the logic would be to treat the small damage before it
becomes major damage. ie rest for 4 weeks v season ending surgery, or small surgery v big surgery
But ligaments don't heal themselves. The only one ai know that does is the MCL. An ACL or achilles isn't gonna get better without surgery. At least with limited knowledge.
stretched ligaments can heal, torn ligaments can't
stretched ligaments can heal, torn ligaments can't
But sprains are an injury or stretching is an injury. I'm assuming the purpose of this thread was to see if you see something from an MRI that can predetermine a player is more susceptible to an injury before an injury.
Listen, it is an interesting take and I am not disagreeing with it. I am just not sure how practical it is yet. How can you tell a player not to play because you think they could get injured? You would need to run a study with multiple types of athletes over a long period of time to see if they can truly diagnose injuries before they happen but, more importantly, what can they do to prevent it. That second part is really the problem.
This too. You should only get one if completely necessary.
Radiologists, for legal reasons, report lots of findings.
If everyone on a 53 man roster had MRIs of the spine, knees, ankles, feet, elbows, hands and shoulders. not to mention muscles in the legs and core, half of the roster would be placed on injured lists.
Radiologists, for legal reasons, report lots of findings.
If everyone on a 53 man roster had MRIs of the spine, knees, ankles, feet, elbows, hands and shoulders. not to mention muscles in the legs and core, half of the roster would be placed on injured lists.
Yup, another good point. When I messed my back up 10ish years ago a got several opinions on it. 3 of the 4 surgeons I met with recommended PT + time and to not get surgery yet. They all said that if they were to pull random adult males off the street and scanned them they'd find bulging discs in a fairly high percentage of them. Add in football trauma and that goes percentage goes up drastically.