This is a transcript of a Dr. Jay Show broadcast on 1560TheGame in Houston, TX. Dr. J. Michael Bennett is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and a Fellowship Trained Sports Medicine Physician serving patients from Katy, Fort Bend County, Metro Houston and Southeast Texas from offices in Houston and Sugar Land, TX. Call 281-633-8600 for an appointment.
Our special guest is Dr. Mark Vann, a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon specializing in foot and ankle injuries.
Here’s the transcript of the first portion of the Show:
Good morning Houston, this is Dr. Jay Michael Bennett coming at you live from 1560 the Game, right behind the Galleria. It’s a beautiful day. Hopefully you guys are up and around, getting a little energetic after that Danny Arnold Show. Now Danny, he’s a character. He’s out here preaching about healthy eating and all of that, but I think he’s got about 10 éclairs stuffed here under this table that he munches on between takes. But I love Danny, he’s a great guy, and everything he says is serious in regards to health and wellness.
Today we’re going to be talking about orthopedics and sports medicine. My background here is I am a board certified orthopedic surgeon practicing in the Houston area. I am sub-specialty trained in sports medicine and I grew up in the Houston area and I’m a part of the Fondren Orthopedic Group and practice primarily in the Sugar Land area. Today we have a great show for you. We’ve got Dr. Mark Vann here. He’s also an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in foot and ankle. Welcome to the show, Dr. Vann. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
VANN: Thanks for having me on the show, Dr. Jay. I am an orthopedic surgeon, board certified. I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan, so I’m new to the Houston heat. Been here a couple of years and am enjoying myself so far. In regards to foot and ankle, following an orthopedic training I spent an additional year back in Detroit working on nothing but foot and ankle injuries and complex deformities. This additional year allowed me to get a lot more experience with the more difficult issues that we come across in the world of orthopedics.
BENNETT: A lot of our listeners think that when they see an orthopedic surgeon, it’s kind of like, “okay, they treat everything.” But you can actually go to a specialist that spends an extra year of training studying specifically in that area of interest. We typically will do about a five-year residency – I did mine over at Baylor College of Medicine – and that usually is followed by going either straight out into practice or spending another year in training. If you enjoy the torture enough, some of us choose to spend an extra year in training. That’s what I did at the University of Miami when I got my sports fellowship and that’s what Dr. Mark Vann did in regards to foot and ankle.
If you are new to the show, welcome. The mission of the show is to inform, update and clarify any of the “Three Ms”, which are: Myths, Misconceptions and Misunderstandings in regards to sports medicine, healthcare and wellness. And our goal really is to make you an informed consumer. Patients really should approach medicine as a product and you really need to do your due diligence and research your physicians and procedures or your therapy as much as possible. You really do have to spend as much time looking into your treatments as you do when you buy a new car. It’s an investment in your health and your well being and there are some long-term consequences if you don’t take that into consideration. And just remember that when you walk into that doctor’s office, you always have options. You can choose to go through with a procedure or you can talk to your physician about what options are available to you.
We also wanted to give a shout-out to our primary sponsors, the Texas Sports Medicine Institute. You really need to check out their facility, it’s between Sugar Land and Katy. They specialize in sports medicine injuries. There are a number of orthopedic surgeons that are specialty trained on board at that facility. They’ve got physical therapy and wellness. We’ve got Plex 99 right next door and it’s a great facility. You may even get a glimpse of the Danny Arnold, kind of hanging out and doing nothing, yelling at a few people! Their web site is: www.texassportsmed.com
Today we are talking about ankle, leg, foot injuries. We’ve got Dr. Mark Vann with us. I don’t know if any of you were listening to last week’s show, but usually I like to end each segment with a segue into the next week’s show. I [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHCXNt4P8Xg]had mentioned Joe Theisman, in 1985, when Lawrence Taylor clipped him from the side and really did a number on that ankle. Now in regards to determining what’s a bad or serious ankle injury, that’s probably one of the worst you are going to see out there. He actually had what we call an open fracture, or a compound fracture, where the bone breaks the skin. And that’s a serious injury that usually requires immediate attention. Not everybody’s going to be dealing with an injury like that, which, when it happens, it’s pretty obvious that you’re going to need to see an orthopedic surgeon at that time.
Dr. Vann, I think a lot of patients and listeners want to know when to see a doctor and get help in regards to their ankle or their foot and how do you differentiate between a really bad injury and a mild strain or sprain?
VANN: As regards the Joe Theisman injury, unfortunately they’re not always that easy to determine. If you see bone, it’s pretty bad. Aside from that, as far as ankle injuries, the key point is the ability to walk. If you’re not able to walk after an ankle injury, if it’s painful or sore and you just cannot put weight down on it, I would highly recommend getting to a facility to have X-rays done. That’s the best way to differentiate a broken ankle from an ankle sprain. Your ability to differentiate this is monumental in the treatment. If it’s broken, you may actually need surgery. If it’s just a sprain, at that point you may have to use what we call the RICE protocol: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. That’s just a simple mnemonic on how to treat a simple and straightforward ankle sprain. But, again, if you cannot bear weight, you first need that X-ray.
BENNETT: What I usually do, especially with my athletes if I’m covering a game and someone rolls their ankle – which is a common thing we see when we’re working the sidelines – is to evaluate that ankle, see if there is any swelling, and determine if that person can bear weight as Dr. Vann said. I usually do a one-legged hop test; I’ll have them jump up and down on that leg. If they’re able to stand on that and jump up and down on that leg, that means that for the most part the integrity of the ankle is intact in regards to the ligaments. If they can’t do that, it’s a pretty bad sign and it usually means there’s a ligament injury or a bone injury and it probably needs further evaluation. Like Dr. Vann suggested, the RICE protocol is great. That doesn’t mean go get a bowl of ice and stick your foot in it. An anti-inflammatory helps, too. And then get it evaluated if it doesn’t get any better.
If you’d like to make an appointment with Dr. Bennett, please call our office at 281-633-8600.
