Non-union fractures are a type of fracture that does not heal on its own. As a result, the bone fragments do not grow back together, which can cause pain, discomfort, and diminished mobility. Non-union fractures can occur in anyone at any age. However, they are more common in older adults, who tend to have weaker bones.

The risk of non-union fractures is also higher in people with previous injuries to their bones or chronic health problems such as diabetes or obesity. If you have suffered a non-union fracture, you may wonder what makes it different from other fractures.

Causes and Signs of Non-Union Fractures

Non-union fractures can happen in any part of the body, but they’re most common in long bones such as the femur, thigh, or tibia (shinbone). They can also occur in joints like wrists or ankles, called avascular necrosis.

Some signs of a non-union fracture include:

• Pain when you move your joint or limb
• Tenderness around the injured area
• Swelling and inflammation of surrounding tissue
• Stiffness when you move your limbs and
• Difficulty moving your joints or limbs due to pain or immobility

The most common causes of non-union fractures include:

• Lack of blood supply to the affected area or poor blood flow
• Poor nutrition
• Lack of oxygen at the site of the break
• Inflammation in the area surrounding the break
• Advanced age or an underlying health condition.
• Infection

The severity of the injury will determine whether surgery is required to treat it, but in most cases, surgery is necessary for complete healing. Your doctor may also recommend physical therapy to help you regain strength and range of motion in your affected limb after surgery.

A patella fracture is a break in one of the bones of the kneecap. It is one of the most common types of fractures in adults and can be caused by trauma to the front of the knee. The kneecap serves as a cushion between the femur and the tibia. It helps keep the patella in place while walking or running.

Causes of Patella Fractures

The most common cause of patella fractures is falling on one leg and landing on your knee, which can cause the bone to break. Another common cause is a direct impact from an object such as a baseball bat or car door.

A kneecap fracture typically occurs when excessive force is applied directly to the knee joint; however, it can also happen when no direct impact is involved, such as with certain types of arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This is because the bones may already be weak in these situations before any external forces are applied.

Symptoms

The symptoms of kneecap injury can vary depending on the severity of the damage and part of the affected knee. If you suspect you have suffered a knee injury, there are several things to look out for. It includes:

• Dull pain or throbbing in your knee
• Swelling or bruising around your kneecaps
• Numbness in your lower leg (if nerves have been damaged)
• Limited range of motion in your knee joint

If you’ve suffered a dislocated patella, you may experience swelling around your knee and difficulty bending your leg. You may also have an audible popping sound when you try to turn your knee and pain when doing so.

If you have any of these symptoms after injuring yourself, it is best to seek medical attention immediately.

Treatment

The first thing following a patella injury is to seek treatment from a doctor or medical professional as soon as possible. Your doctor will likely recommend physical therapy, medication, and rest to help you recover from your injury. You may also need surgery if your knee cannot heal properly.

It’s important to follow your doctor’s recommendations for recovery to maintain mobility and avoid complications down the road.

Cartilage is a rigid, rubbery material that covers the ends of bones in joints. It protects and provides cushions to the bones as they move against each other during normal movement. A cartilage injury is a condition in which the cartilage (the shock-absorbing tissue in the joints) is damaged.

Cartilage damage can occur in many different ways. The most common is among active people who participate in contact sports such as basketball, football, rugby, and netball. The older population is also prone to cartilage injuries as cartilage degenerates and becomes less elastic as we age.

Cartilage Injury Causes

Direct Blow or Traumatic Events

A direct blow to the knee is one of the most common causes of cartilage injury. It can occur when you fall or are hit directly on your knee by another person or object. The force from this type of injury can cause damage to the underlying bone and tissue, resulting in swelling and possibly bleeding.

Overuse or Repetitive Stress Injuries

Repetitive stress injuries occur when too much pressure is placed on one area of your body over a while. It can happen during activities that require repetitive motions like running or jumping jacks. Repetitive stress injuries often cause inflammation and pain at the site where they occur. In addition, overused cartilage can lead to further damage if they are not adequately rested.

Age-Related Degeneration

As we age, our bodies deteriorate naturally as part of normal wear and tear processes. One way this manifests itself is through cartilage degeneration.

Cartilage Repair Treatment

When the cartilage breaks down, it can lead to osteoarthritis, which causes pain and limited movement. There are many different cartilage repair treatment available for damage. It can range from nonsurgical options like physical therapy, bracing, and injections to more invasive surgery. 

If you are an older patient or your daily activity level is low, then nonsurgical treatment methods are usually advised. It can involve using orthopedic devices to ease knee pain and support your knee joint.

Metatarsals are the long bones that connect the toes to the ankle. Metatarsal fractures are one of the most common foot injuries, which are caused by trauma such as falling on an outstretched foot or stepping off a curb without bending your ankle first. A twisting injury can also cause metatarsal fractures. Metatarsal fractures are common in athletes who play contact sports such as football and basketball since these sports increase your risk for high-impact injuries such as foot and leg fractures.

The treatment for metatarsal fractures depends on how bad the break is, how many other bones were injured, and whether any soft tissue damage or nerve damage is involved with the fracture.

Fracture Treatment Options

Nonoperative Treatment

Suppose your doctor thinks that nonoperative treatment is appropriate for your metatarsal fractures. In that case, your medical provider will recommend taking pain medication and wearing a walking cast or a quality foot brace. It will help rest and immobilize the fractured metatarsal in aid of recovery.

Surgery

Surgery may be necessary if your broken toe is severe, displaced, or rotated. During surgery, a surgeon will remove damaged bone fragments and then realign and secure the remaining bone with plates, screws, wires, or rods. 

A metatarsal fracture can take anywhere from 4 months to a year to heal completely. You’ll need to wear an orthopedic shoe with a stiff sole and good arch support during this time. You may also need crutches or a walker to help you get around while your foot heals.

You’ll also need to avoid activities like running and jumping until your foot heals completely — even if it feels better after several weeks or months. 

If you are looking for the best orthopedic devices to aid your recovery, you may consider Synergy Orthopedics. They have been in the industry since 2001 and know the best approach for your recovery. Visit their website at https://www.synergyortho.com to learn more about their products and services.

Hip braces are prescribed when you are suffering from pain in your hip, as a part of your hip osteoarthritis treatment or have undergone a hip surgery. The braces not only help you bear the pain, but also helps align your hip in case of dislocation and protects your hip against any further injuries. If you have common hip disorders and problems, often you might end up wearing hip braces to resolve the issues.

Depending on its use, a hip brace comes in various styles, colors and materials. For instance, some braces are designed to reduce mobility and movement, while some are designed to enhance mobility and movement. The following are some points to keep in mind while using hip braces: 

• If you feel the need for a hip brace, consult a healthcare professional before buying and wearing one on your own.
• Always follow all the instructions and precautions when wearing the brace. Your doctor will guide you on how to wear the brace, how long to wear it and when to wear it.
• If there is any irritation or redness on the skin under the hip brace, remove it and call your physician.
• Wash and clean your brace regularly to avoid any kind of infections
• If you want to sit with your brace on, always use a pillow for back support. Remember, sitting straight is out of question as it can really be a challenge when they are worn as a part of hip osteoarthritis treatment.
• Do not sit on low chairs as movement and even standing up wearing hip braces will be difficult
• Take the help of your arms when attempting to stand up. Avoid putting any kind of pressure on your injured hip/leg as it can aggravate the pain

Synergy Orthopedics is a Medicare and BOC accredited company, working with doctors and other medical professionals to help patients regain mobility and function and get back to their normal everyday lives. A leading orthopedic recovery care company and a leader in patient care, they provide the most advanced recovery care products, programs, protocols and technologies available on the market. leading orthopedic recovery care company. The Unloader Hip Brace is a featured product of Synergy Orthopedics, for patients suffering from mild to moderate hip osteoarthritis, undergoing hip osteoarthritis treatment. Easy to use, it provides comfort to the user and helps in increasing mobility. Contact Synergy Orthopedics to learn more!

An injury can drain you psychologically and render you mentally powerless. A tibial fracture is a significant leg injury that can keep you from gaining normalcy for up to a year. During this time, you are bound to feel isolated, frustrated, anxious, and even depressed when you go through extensive treatment. Such mental health challenges are roadblocks on the path to your recovery. A large percentage of people who suffer such major injuries deal with depression. Along with physical healing, mental recovery is equally important. Read on as we take you through the steps of mental healing, which form an integral part of tibial fracture recovery. 

Think of a Healthy You!

One of the most acceptable methods to deal with psychological scars is a visualization of a healthy you. When you visualize action and perform it later, you stimulate the same regions in your brain. It makes you more optimistic about life. Having positive convictions is essential because when you think about significant challenges in life, your mind gets clouded with negative thoughts. Make time for daily visualization and positive affirmation to prepare for action.

Accept Your Present and Move Ahead

Whether you are an ordinary person or an athlete, you desire to return to work or play as soon as possible. But, the recovery process needs time. Injures do not heal in an instant and demand a lot of patience. So, please focus on the present and persevere because it is natural to feel disappointed, and it is natural to honor your feelings of loss when you miss your friends, colleagues, or teammates.

After accepting the injury comes moving ahead as a part of a tibial fracture recovery process! Set clear, realistic, and easily achievable goals. Start measuring your achievements and track the data to monitor daily progress to better the results. You can also make it time-bound to force yourself to focus more on the goal.

Take the Help of Professionals

Nobody can get back to normal without the help of an expert, especially after an injury. Accepting help and support from a mental health provider, coach, or therapist can help you heal quickly by having them beside you as a motivator.

Remember, owning up to your injury and temporary inability to perform is a significant step towards mental stability. By thinking so, you control yourself and do not let your injury overpower you! 

If you need professionals to help you in your tibial fracture recovery process, contact Synergy Orthopedics, a trusted partner to patients recovering from musculoskeletal injuries and surgeries. They work alongside doctors and other medical professionals, helping patients regain function and motion and return to their everyday lives. Synergy Orthopedics is a proven leader in patient care, providing the most advanced recovery care products, programs, protocols, and technologies available on the market. Call them to learn more.

Do you drag the front of your foot on the ground when you walk? It may be one of the early symptoms of drop foot syndrome. It is not a disease in itself, but signals a kind of neurological, muscular or anatomical problem. It could be temporary or permanent. Read on to learn more about the more common symptoms of the drop foot syndrome.

Dragging Toes

When you suffer from drop foot, you may drag toes when walking as the syndrome makes it difficult to lift the front part of the foot due to injuries to the nerves that control the foot muscles. The affected nerves may be in the knee or in the lower spine. This can cause you to raise your thigh when you walk.

Tripping

You may often trip because of weakness in the muscles of the foot and toes as a result of improper conduction of impulse from the brain through the injured nerve. It is common to lose balance, stumble and fall which occurs because of the inability to properly lift the foot and toes while walking. Due to this, you may also find it difficult to hold footwear on when walking.

Numbness

A feeling of numbness in the skin on the top of your foot and toes is also one of the symptoms of drop foot syndrome. This sense of numbness or pain in some specific areas on the foot and leg happens due to the underlying compressed nerves. Loss of sensation may occur on the front and outer side of the lower leg and along the upper part of the foot.

Change in Gait

You may develop a habit of taking a high steppage gait by raising the thigh up in an exaggerated fashion, such as while climbing stairs. This gait helps to prevent the toes from scraping the floor while walking. Sometimes, you may swing your affected leg to the side in a semicircle to move forward to avoid falls or tripping.

Synergy Orthopedics has been a trusted partner to patients recovering from musculoskeletal injuries and surgeries. Serving patients in Eastern Pennsylvania, Hudson Valley NY, Maryland, Washington, DC, Delaware, and New Jersey since 2001,  offers the most advanced recovery care products, programs, protocols and technologies available on the market. To learn more about products that can help alleviate your symptoms of drop foot syndrome, contact Synergy Orthopedics.

Scoliosis is a side-to-side curvature in the spine in one or multiple areas. Curves may be as mild as 10 degrees or as severe as 100 degrees or more. Adult-onset scoliosis causes may vary. One of the common causes is the degeneration of the facet joints and the spine’s intervertebral discs. Another reason may be undiscovered pediatric scoliosis that is now becoming apparent.

The Symptoms of Adult-Onset Scoliosis

Scoliosis itself is painless. However, the typical age-related degeneration of the spine may lead to symptoms such as back pain. One can also experience pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness in the legs because of nerve compression due to a misaligned lumbar spine. Changes in physical appearance and height loss are the other common symptoms of adult-onset scoliosis.

How Adult-Onset Scoliosis Diagnosed

Adult-onset scoliosis can be diagnosed with a thorough physical exam backed by a result of your x-ray. If adult scoliosis is suspected, the physician examines and palpates the shape of your spine. In addition, the doctor assesses the way you walk, stand, and sit. Finally, the nerves are tested through muscle strength and reflex examinations.

Adult-Onset Scoliosis Medical Interventions

Adult-onset scoliosis is usually treated non-surgically. The medical intervention focuses on pain or symptom management. High-quality orthopedic devices such as braces and back supports have shown success in stopping scoliosis progression. In addition, physicians advise physical therapy to build strength and improve flexibility. 

Surgery is sometimes required for treatment. However, it’s the last resort intervention because of the risks and potential complications associated with spinal surgery. Surgery may be considered if the patient’s overall quality of life is being affected due to intense pain or when nerve function is significantly affected.

If you’re looking for high-quality orthopedic devices to manage adult-onset scoliosis, you may consider reaching out to Synergy Orthopedics, LLC. They are a trusted partner to patients recovering from musculoskeletal injuries. At Synergy Orthopedics, the patient is at the heart of everything they do. Visit their website at https://www.synergyortho.com to learn more about their products and services.

Are you suffering from pain in the front of your knee or around your kneecap? The pain may increase when you run, walk up or down a flight of stairs, sit for long periods or squat. Simple treatments and physical therapy can ease you of this patellofemoral pain syndrome. Keep reading!

Exercise Therapy

You should start doing simple exercises as a first step towards treating this pain. Postures like straight-leg exercise or pillow squeeze exercise which fully extend the knee can minimize stress on the patellofemoral-joint in the leg. Warming up along with gentle stretching exercises for about five minutes before running or other exercise is a prerequisite for you to check this pain. You can increase the intensity of your exercise gradually to avoid sudden shocks in the knee area.

Weight Control

Just because patellofemoral pain syndrome typically affects adolescents and young adults, if you are one of them, you can control the pain by checking weight gain. Reduction of load on the knee joint and surrounding tissues can relieve pain. However, avoid activities like bicycling or swimming for weight loss when the treatment is ongoing. Ice or other methods of cold application may also help to further reduce symptoms.

Electrotherapy

When you feel pain in the knee because of a neuromuscular imbalance, then electrical stimulation of certain muscles and nerves can complement exercise therapy as it is selective and does not stress the knee joint. This can provide relief as the primary cause of this muscle atrophy is abnormal lateral tracking of the knee bone.

Activity Changes

Until your pain is resolved, stop doing activities that make your knee hurt. It may include changing your training routine or switching to low-impact activities. In addition, shoe inserts also help to align and stabilize the foot and ankle, taking stress off your lower leg.Synergy Orthopedics, established in 2001, is a proven leader in patient care, providing the most advanced recovery care products, programs, protocols and technologies available on the market. They have been helping patients recover from musculoskeletal injuries and surgeries, regain function and motion and get back to their everyday lives. Synergy Orthopedics offers a wide range of options to help tackle your patellofemoral pain syndrome. Contact them today for more details.

Adhering to a proper rehabilitation framework is essential if you wish to make a complete recovery after an injury. A series of processes and exercises after effective treatment hasten recovery. The general framework for orthopedic injury recovery in Honesdale PA is relatively consistent with the following recommended steps that ensure a successful rehabilitation.

Rest

Your first goal during recovery should be minimizing further damage and letting the body begin the healing process. Adequate rest can help you achieve this by regulating inflammation and pain. Doctors may ask you to use ice or cold packs with some protective cast or sling to safeguard the injury. They may also ask you to raise your injured body part above the level of your heart to reduce pain, throbbing, and swelling.

Motion

Normally, swelling and pain make it difficult to move the injured body part. Your physiotherapist may recommend careful soft tissue and joint mobilization training to recover early stage motion. Physiotherapists insist that minor flexibility training helps to regain motion and reclaim strength in the injured limb or joint.

Strength

During the process of orthopedic injury recovery in Honesdale PA, you might develop muscle weakness and loss of endurance. Your physiotherapy program at this stage will help minimize muscle loss and try to give you back the lost strength in your injured body part. Many people, mostly sportspersons, carry out stationary cycling or gentle exercises to maintain cardiovascular endurance during this period.

Function

Once strength returns to normal in your injured limb or joint, it is time to start doing specific exercises to reclaim any coordination that you may have lost following the injury. This phase includes restoring coordination and balance to improve speed and agility. It helps you recover specific functions of the limb so that you can return to work and normal life. Synergy Orthopedics is a leading orthopedic recovery care company dedicated to providing quality patient care for those recovering from musculoskeletal injuries and surgeries. As a Medicare accredited and proven leader in patient care, Synergy Ortho delivers the most advanced recovery care products, programs, protocols, and technologies available on the market, working with doctors and other medical professionals to get patients back to their everyday lives. To learn more about how Synergy Orthopedics can help in orthopedic injury recovery in Honesdale PA, visit their website at https://www.synergyortho.com.