Thanks to new advancements in technology, conditions like tennis elbow and rotator cuff tears can now be repaired with minimally invasive treatments.
Dr. Lafe Harris, sports medicine physician at The Queen’s Medical Center – West Oahu says this treatment differs from surgery because of the small size of the incision.
“Because of the small nature of the incision, we don’t have to use anesthesia as much, we can just locally numb the area. And people recover much quicker, about a third of the time it takes to recover from regular surgery,” said Harris.
This procedure works best for tendon injuries such as tennis elbow, calcium in tendons such as the rotator cuff and hip, partial tendon tears in the rotator cuff and hip and some bone spur removal, depending on the location of the bone spurs.
“So, the shoulder, hip, elbow and Achilles tendon and ankle area which tend to be the most effective,” Harris said.
This type of treatment is best for people who need a fast recovery, who are not healthy enough for open surgery, who have tendon injuries or pain, and for those who find that physical therapy is not working.
“When you have tried other things like injections, physical therapy, medications that haven’t worked. All those things kind of come together in our decision to move forward with a minimally invasive procedure,” said Harris.
The treatment process includes an office evaluation with ultrasound, scheduling of the treatment and the procedure which takes about 20-30 minutes, a rest period of about two weeks and physical therapy.
“The recovery phase is much, much quicker because you don’t have to repair everything around the tendon as well. So, patients can return to most office jobs and lighter activity within a couple days,” Harris explained.
To learn more about the services provided by Queen’s-West Orthopedics department, visit www.queens.org or call (808) 691-3520.