Visited the National Gallery recently and enjoyed admiring these Picassos that featured the elbow prominently
Why Architecture is the Perfect Theme for our. National Shoulder and Elbow Week event in Buffalo. You could argue that architecture is what happens when art and engineering collide. You might be able to say the same thing for shoulder and elbow surgery. As shoulder and elbow surgeons we “reconstruct” joints, “restore” anatomy and use … Read more
Most people know that smoking is bad for your heart and lungs. Few people know that it’s bad for your bones and joints.
There’s a host of reasons why smoking leads to poor bone health. And I’m not sure how interested you are in the nitty gritty bichemical details of why this is. So I will cut to the chase and highlight two specific scenarios in which smoking can be bad for your bones.
Most people think that you need an MRI to “see” everything that is going on in your shoulder. But it’s simply not true. And there are a few ways that you can be fooled by this line of reasoning.
1. You fail to put findings in context
I can show you MRI reports of normal shoulders that will scare the daylights out of you. These are full page documents that describe in great detail, essentially normal findings in medical lingo. Unfortunately as a layperson and even many medical professionals who are unfamiliar with the problem, most of this language will sound scary and can be misinterpreted.
Heuristics are “rules of thumb” that people use to make decisions in situations that involve uncertainty. Taleb writes about them in depth and I enjoy his writing. The daily practice of medicine requires making frequent high stakes decision with incomplete knowledge. Where “evidence based medicine” leaves off, heuristics often take over.
I think both doctors and patients use them, but in different ways.
Truth #1: Shoulder Arthritis Often Affects Both Arms For a given patient, shoulder arthritis in the ball and socket portion of the joint usually occurs in both arms. We don’t totally understand why this is. There is likely some genetic predisposition that we have yet to fully figure out. But it’s true: if you’ve got … Read more
Bone Loss Below the 25% Threshold This new study takes things a step further. It shows that results after instability surgery tend to be worse in direct proportion to the amount of bone loss one has even below the 25% threshold. This study is extremely interesting. What we are finding out now with the use … Read more
Arthritis in the Ball and Socket Joint Arthritis is actually relatively uncommon in this joint. But when it occurs it tends to show a distinct pattern. The hallmark of arthritis at the ball and socket shoulder joint is joint space narrowing bone spurs at the bottom of the ball portion of the joint. The patient … Read more