The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 12/22/22 with Dr. Gasser

Pat Donovan: Welcome back to Pat and Aaron Show 95.3 WDAE and AM 620. Aaron Jacobson out today and tomorrow he will return on Tuesday. Jon Momoa in for both of us on Monday. Matt Matera will join me tomorrow in for Aaron Jacobson, but today, Kasey Hudson with us. Follow her on the Twitter machine @TheSportsKase, with a K. Of course it’s time for our injury report and it’s presented every week by Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. Joining us again today is Dr. Seth Gasser. Doctor, good morning. How are you?

Dr. Seth Gasser: Good morning. How’s it going? Pat and Kasey?

Kasey Hudson: Good morning.

Pat: It’s going really well for us. Not as well for Jet’s corner. Brandon Eccles. He’s got a quadricep injury. I was thinking about this, Doctor, we don’t talk about quadricep injuries very often. Is the quad just a stronger and more durable muscle? Is that why we don’t see as many injuries? Or am I just missing them all?

Dr. Seth Gasser: Yes. You’re correct in that, it’s definitely stronger. It’s in the front of the leg instead of the back of the leg. The quad strains are much less common than hamstring strains. Yes, that’s absolutely correct. Now the quadriceps is called the quad because it’s made up of four muscles, and one muscle in particular, which is the rectus femoris, part of the quadriceps is the one most likely to be injured. That muscle, just like other muscles that are typically injured, crosses two joints.

Kasey: Ouch. How significant of an impact has to happen to the quad muscle for it to gather an injury like that, because you said it’s not very common.

Dr. Seth Gasser: Well, it’s a similar mechanism to most other tendon muscle injuries. They tend to fail in what we call an eccentric load. They’re lengthening against resistance. Muscles that cross more than one joint have more excursion and are more likely to be injured. It probably takes a little more energy to injure your quadriceps than your hamstring, and it’s probably less likely to be re-injured than a hamstring strain as well.

Kasey: Ooh.

Pat: You can tell I spend a lot of time in the gym when the doctor has to tell me that the quad is not a more durable muscle because it’s actually four muscles. How does the recovery from a quad injury compare to that of a calf or a hamstring injury?

Dr. Seth Gasser: Typically, the quad injuries recover a little bit quicker. They have a more robust tendon and it tends to heal a little bit better. It’s also less likely to be as severely damaged as your hamstring or your calf. I think that coming back too soon from any of those injuries leads to re-injury, but probably a little less likely for your quad than your hamstring or your calf muscle.

Kasey: Yikes.

Pat: We got Bucs tackle, Donovan Smith, of course dealing with a foot injury now, but he’s continued to look a little uncomfortable with his elbow since the hyperextension earlier this season. Is it common for a hyperextension to continue to linger for as long as it has for Donovan? Although, I guess most of us on the street wouldn’t be using it as violently or as often in that capacity as a Donovan Smith, right? Obviously.

Dr. Seth Gasser: Yes, the elbow is a pretty sensitive joint, so when the elbow hyperextends, it actually straightens more than it shouldn’t have been backwards. A hyperextension injury can be anything from a mild strain to a complete elbow dislocation. With a significant hyperextension injury, the elbow tends to swell and get very stiff and painfully afterwards. It takes a while to get over that. When you’re trying to block a 250-pound athletic defensive end and you need to have your arms out straight and that repetitive contact can bother a hyperextended elbow injury for potentially the rest of the season, until you have significant rest.

Kasey: Oh my goodness.

Pat: All right. Is it because that he’s tried to play through this injury that he’s cat at linger as long as it has, do you think, Doctor?

Dr. Seth Gasser: I think that’s part of it, but the elbow in general is pretty sensitive after a hyperextension injury. It’s a balance between trying to move the elbow quicker and regain motion without potentially continuing to inflame it and have it continue to be painful. It’s quite a tough balancing act to do. I don’t think he’s probably doing any more damage, but certainly playing continually reaggravating it makes it a lot harder to get over and it just extends the time that it’s not 100%.

Kasey: Speaking of the balancing act though, when you’re not fully healed in one area of your body, where would one overcompensate with a hyperextended elbow?

Dr. Seth Gasser: Well, I think the natural tendency is to splint or protect that area of your body. I think when you do that, I think the whole rest of your body becomes at risk. Most likely the joints above and below the joint that’s injured, but it can change how your whole technique of blocking that can lead to all sorts of other overuse injuries, and being less effective at doing it as we’ve seen.

Pat: Browns running back, Nick Chubb, missed practice with a foot injury, but the team does expect him to play on Saturday. They play of course on Christmas Eve. How much harder is it to play through a foot injury at a position like running back that requires so much sudden movement and cutting?

Dr. Seth Gasser: Well, it’s definitely harder to play through something like that if you’re at a position that requires aggressive and quick change of directions and explosive movements. Running back, defensive back, those are probably linebackers the most difficult positions to get over a foot injury. Some of these foot injuries that you think of as relatively minor injuries can be really painful. To pivot and twist and cut and be effective at doing that is hard if you’re having a lot of pain. It’s pretty hard to get over some of what you might even think of simple injuries like a turf toe or something like that.

Pat: Speaking of simple injuries, it’s the holiday season and a lot of people love the old eggnog, what is maybe the most common drunken holiday injury that you guys see every year?

Dr. Seth Gasser: If I could give people any advice, it would be stay off your roof and stay off a ladder. We see more people that fall off their roofs trying to put up Christmas lights or fall off a ladder trying to get ornaments out of an attic or putting ornaments on the tree after having a little bit of eggnog. It’s never a good outcome.

Pat: Dr. Seth Gasser has been with the Florida Orthopaedic Institute since 1993. That’s Dr. Seth Gasser. I don’t know why I just added a t to his name there for no reason. Of course, our favorite Maryland Terrapin, Dr. Seth Gasser, and he joins us as part of the injury report presented by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with Florida Orthopaedic Institute. They provide you access to one of the top orthopedic programs in the nation. Schedule an appointment today at floridaortho.com. Dr. Gasser, thanks for being with us. Have a great holiday, my friend.

Dr. Seth Gasser: Appreciate it. You do the same.

Pat: Again, thank you, Dr. Seth Gasser, right there, Florida Orthopaedic Institute. They do a great job. You heard him talking about falling off your roof.