MSK Matters

Foot and ankle injuries can be overwhelming for new sports medicine learners due to the complex network of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. Dividing the anatomy into the ankle joint, hindfoot, midfoot, and forefoot can be helpful. Learning the intricate anatomy is the first step in understanding what structures are located where, making it easier to narrow down the differential diagnosis. Foot and ankle injuries are common in the majority of sports, and learners need to become f...

Millions of individuals will have persistent symptoms following an acute COVID-19 infection requiring post COVID-19 rehabilitation. Common symptoms include fatigue, decreased activity tolerance, cognitive dysfunction (brain fog), shortness of breath, and pain. This leads to decreased ability to complete activities of daily living, return to work or school and affects quality of life.There are many terms for post COVID-19 condition including long COVID (proposed by patients in May 2020) and po...

What role does physical activity have in optimizing brain health and function?There is strong evidence for exercise as a protective factor for dementia. This should includereaching the Canadian Physical Activity / World Health Organization Guidelines includingstrength training, balance exercises and aerobic activity.Exercise induces neurogenesis, addresses cardiovascular risk factors, decreases depressionand anxiety and is associated with larger brain regions such as the hippocampus.There is ...

This episode deals with something we all do every day, sleep! Sleep is now seen as an active, restorative experience intended to optimize our functioning while awake, rather than a passive process. Sleep is closely tied with mood and pain, and plays animportant role in cognition, emotional regulation, injury, function, and chronic disease.Sleep difficulties are incredibly prevalent and fatigue frequently accumulates over time –the concept of sleep debt. Though generally 8 hours per night are ...

Welcome to Season 3! Three new residents will be co-hosting this season alongside Dr. Ali Rendely.PGY1: Dr. Chris WavellPGY4: Dr. Melissa WeidmanPGY4: Dr. Natalie Daly Episode one focuses on nutrition and physical activity through the decades.How do patients optimize nutrition and physical activity as they age? It’s hard to “out nutrition” inactivity, but exercise is the forgiver of many sins! The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) is 0.8 g protein per kg of body weight...

In this episode, we review all of the episodes from this season and highlight our favourite clinical pearls, while adding some new ones! A huge thank you to all of our guests for sharing their knowledge and time. To recap:Low back pain with Dr. Stuart McGillDiet and Sports Nutrition with Jennifer SygoExercise is Medicine with Rob BertelinkSport Concussions with Drs. Alex Francella and Scott Shallow Lower extremity injuries with Dr. Tim Rindlisbacher Physical Activity and P...

The Tokyo Olympics mark the debut of new sports include karate, sport climbing and skateboarding, among others.In this episode, we discuss common injuries sports medicine physicians see when treating patients that participate in these sports.In sport climbing, upper extremity injures account for 80-90% of all injuries. Specifically, hand and finger injuries are exceptionally common. So common, that the injury has been named climber’s finger. In a distant second, shoulder injuries including ro...

This episode is for all women of childbearing years and all of the healthcare practitioners who provide care to these patients!The new CSEP Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy Guidelines provide evidence around the benefits and safety of being active throughout pregnancy, for both mother and baby. Physical activity is now seen as a critical part of a healthy pregnancy. Following the guidelines can reduce the risk of pregnancy-related illnesses such as depression by at least 25%, and the ri...

Lower extremity injuries occur in all sports and high profile athletes draw attention to such injuries. This episode delves into 3 of the most talked about lower extremity injuries in the last years. Using these athletes as a starting point, this episode discusses the differential diagnosis, assessment, work up and rehabilitation plans for lower body sports injuries. We start with the hip dislocation sustained by now NFL player Tua Tagovailoa. Posterior hip fracture dislocations are rela...

In this episode we review concussion, a large and nuanced topic. There are 200,000 concussions annually in Canada, making concussion knowledge required for coverage of all sports.To gain an understanding of sport related concussions refer to the consensus statement on concussion in sport (the 5th international conference on concussion in sport held in Berlin, October 2016)It is helpful to think of concussion management in 3 phases: acute, subacute and chronicIn the acute phase, a sideline eva...