Podiatry in The Media

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