The most cringe-worthy of the three types of injuries he treats
Richard Parker, MD, Head Team Physician and President of Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest and Eastern Region Hospitals, treats three main types of injuries in his patients, the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers. Watch as he discusses the team approach to dramatic, YouTube-worthy, macrotraumatic injuries.
Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy
Dr. Parker says:
“Basketball is a contact sport. Admittedly, it’s often a collision sport. It’s amazing that we don’t have more injuries. I think it’s a testament to how elite of an athlete these guys are as well as how they take care of themselves.
Some of the common injuries, I really categorize them into two categories: One is macrotraumatic. That is the athlete that had nothing going on and has an injury where he has a bad ankle sprain because of the way he came down from a rebound… or if he gets elbowed in the nose and fractures his nose… That’s inevitable, really hard to prevent.
The most common injuries we see are the foot and ankle and then hand, and we do see a fair amount of facial injuries… I’m trained to evaluate those, and I have a very good understanding of those injuries, but I also have a team of consultants. We have a hand consultant, we have a foot and ankle consultant, we have oral surgery consultants and plastic surgeons who consult on facial fractures. We have orthotists that we use who make those masks that you see the players in. It’s all this stuff that happens behind the scenes.”
Watch Dr. Parker discuss practicing in a fishbowl here. He also discusses the impact of 82-game seasons on the prevalence of overuse injuries here. Watch this video to learn from Dr. Parker’s perspective how advances in sports medicine have changed professional basketball.
Rest is often not the best care for gamers’ overuse injuries
Computer simulation identifies causes of instability
Youth and open physes are two factors that increase risk of recurrence
Study shows no difference in peak force, perceived effort or physiologic measures of exertion during strength testing
Study explores why Black patients are less likely than white patients to have MRI, surgery
Innovative treatment combines brisement, nerve block and immediate physical therapy
Restorative procedures produce better outcomes and durability
Studying elbow injuries in baseball pitchers leads to new injury classification and surgical technique