The Foundry Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Blog

Infection of a finger is a common problem and can range from mild and treatable at home, to a serious problem requiring urgent surgical intervention. Failure to properly treat these infections in an appropriate and timely fashion can result in permanent disability or loss of the finger.

      As the mercury rises and activity increases, the potential and incidence of heat-related exercise illness increases significantly.
      This week the Boston Marathon will be run in temperatures forecast to be in the 70 degree range as will other endurance events in the coming weeks including the Cox half and full marathons in our own Ocean State.
       Heat-relates illness is usually recognized to be termed heat exhaustion and more serious heat stroke. Individuals suffer from heat-related illness when the body’s temperature control mechanisms are overloaded and the body is unable to effectively cool itself.   Normal cooling is performed by sweating and evaporation which can be altered by a variety of factors.  Vigorous or prolonged exercise in high temperatures and/or high humidity can prevent adequate normal evaporative cooling to occur.
       The prevention of heat-related illnesses is multifactorial.  Individuals who are not acclimated to exercising in hot weather or who have risk factors that may increase their risk,  should avoid doing so and limit their exercise to cooler morning times and when the humidity is lower to promote cooling.  Modern clothing such as Coolmax fabrics will allow for sweat evaporation and provide sun protection for the skin.  Proper hydration prior to exercise by body weight and urine color may be useful.
       Other variables that will increase risk would be the conditioning of the individual and the acclimation of the individual to exercise in the heat.
       Certain conditions and parameters will also put an individual at risk such as:
Older age
Obesity
Heart disease
Diabetes
Alcohol use
Prescription Drugs
Relative humidity of 60% or greater will blunt the evaporative cooling providing by sweating

When a patient is evaluated by a physical therapist, the basis of their treatment plan will revolve around some form of exercise to correct the impairments of that individual.  In the practice of physical therapy, the most widely utilized treatment modalities are therapeutic exercise and neuromuscular re-education.  Therapeutic exercise and neuromuscular re-education can vary from simple stretching or range of motion activities to complex plyometric and ballistic movements.  Both of these modalities are essential in restoring function of a patient after injury and are defined by the American Medical Association in the following manner:

Golf season is here again!  The average golfer typically plays approximately 37 rounds per year and spends even more time practicing, so it is not surprising that the rate of injuries is on the rise. Public perception, however, is that golf is a low-risk sport. Other sports such as football, ice hockey, or skiing have higher injury rates, but several studies show that golf has its share of injuries, too. One recent study revealed that during a two year period, 60 percent of golf professionals and 40 % of amateurs suffered an injury while golfing. Over 80 percent of the reported injuries were related to overuse, while the remainder were due to acute trauma.