Lately there have been famous sports players as well as
politicians who have complex foot and ankle injuries. I would like to take this
blog to review some of their injuries and their road to recovery.
Kim Jong-un
Last week it was revealed that Kim Jong-un, the leader of
North Korea was out of the media spot light for the past 6 weeks. There was a
lot of speculation as to where he was and what lower extremity alignment he was
suffering from. This week it was brought to light that he had a cyst in his
tarsal tunnel that was surgically removed. In my past blogs I have discussed
tarsal tunnel syndrome. In a nut shell, this syndrome is when the tarsal
tunnel, which is a tunnel in the ankle region, can cause pain including
numbness or burning. The cause can be multifactorial, including compression of
the nerve in the tarsal tunnel with long periods of standing, bulging varicose
veins. Sometimes there can be a cyst in the tarsal tunnel, which can cause the
above mentioned symptoms. If this occurs the only way to treat this would be
surgical removal of the cyst. This surgery is extensive due to the fact that
the entire tarsal tunnel needs to be opened and the cyst needs to be
meticulously extracted. The recovery consists of 4-6 weeks in a cast, non-weight
bearing with crutches. The cyst may reoccur as well as the symptoms, therefore
close monitoring of the symptoms is required.
RG III
In September Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins
had a severe ankle injury which was a dislocated ankle. Luckily there were no
fractures noted during MRI tests. He was extremely lucky that he did not have
any bony chip fractures, which are usually common with ankle dislocations. Due
to the fact that he is in good shape and athletic he is ready to return to his
team. Due to extensive physical therapy he will attempt to return to play.
Julius Randle
Last week Julius Randle of the LA Lakers had a devastating
fracture of his tibia. The tibia bone, which is one the bones in the leg, is
much larger than the bone next to it, the fibula bone. Tibial fractures are
less common then fibular fractures, but due to their larger size they tend to
be a worse injury. Tibia fractures usually occur from a trauma, car accident
and falls. They usually require surgery, which can vary from using plates,
screws and other pieces of hardware. This type of injury can take many months,
4-6, at least to recover. Due to the fact that the bone is so large and the
fact that it holds up the body weight this injury can take a long time and a
lot of physical therapy to recover from.
In conclusion, famous people are not excluded from foot and
ankle injuries. Due to the fact that sports players perform excessive amounts
of physical activity they are more prone to worse injuries.
For more information, please visit our website www.footnj.com
