Panel: Sports Medicine

By Becky Regan
2006 AWSM Intern with The Plain Dealer

When Barbaro snapped his leg during the Preakness, rumors raced through the media that the Kentucky Derby winner might lose more than just a racing career. Ten years ago, Barbaro probably would have died because sports medicine wasn’t what it has become today.

Sports medicine is no longer exclusive to professional athletes, and the improvements in sports medicine are reaching beyond training rooms. Dr. James C. Dreese, Dr. Mike Myerson and Dr. William H.B. Howard highlighted significant strides in sports medicine and predicted changes for the field’s future during a general session on Saturday.

Howard, founder of the Union Memorial Sports Medicine program in Baltimore, is a first-hand witness to the past decade’s changes. He’s worked in the field almost as long as it has existed.

“Back when I started in this field we thought we were pretty new and sharp, but we didn’t know anything,” Howard said.

Now, procedures such as the Tommy John surgery coupled with better medicine and different physical training approaches have professional athletes making maximum recoveries in minimal recovery time.

But among all these changes, Dreese said only one word hovers on the horizon of sports medicine: cartilage.

“Cartilage injuries still remain the greatest enigma of sports medicine,” Dreese said.

Dreese said there are three ways to treat cartilage tears and injuries. The first is to take cartilage from other parts of the body. The second is to grow cartilage by sending cells to a lab. The third is to use donor cartilage.

But the improvements in cartilage procedures are no guarantee that an athlete will recover. Everyone responds differently, Dreese said.

Not knowing how athletes will respond reminds doctors to treat every procedure with the same sense of urgency. “I like to think of every injury as a career-threatening injury,” Dreese added.

Back