To help patients diagnose, treat and manage injuries and joint problems effectively, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), India’s leading hospital for treatment of spine and brain-related injuries, has launched a dedicated department of arthroscopy and orthopaedic sports medicine.

The ISIC’s orthopaedic sports medicine provides a wholesome and comprehensive treatment modality from treatment to rehabilitation to management to help the athlete return to active life. The Centre has a team of 5 sports medicine consultants, who are internationally trained and super-specialize in treating specific joints of the body. No other hospital has such a huge team dedicated to only sports injuries. The department has dedicated senior sports physiotherapists, and facilities such as the largest solar heated hydrotherapy pool in India, and bio-mechanical analysis of sportspersons.

Arthroscopy is a super specialty division of orthopaedics. Arthroscopic surgery also commonly known as the "key hole surgery” involves a minimally invasive procedure. As per the procedure, a pencil sized camera and sophisticated instruments are introduced with small incisions to diagnose and treat problems of joints with very high accuracy. Arthroscopic procedures are performed on knee, shoulder, ankle, elbow, wrist, hip joints and small joints of foot and hand, and are very useful for treating sports injuries, as well as various joint problems affecting the common man at all stages of life.

“In India, there is a glaring paucity of advanced sports medicine facilities. This is why we see most of our professional sportspersons head to foreign shores for treatment and rehabilitation. A lot of our athletes who cannot afford to travel abroad are often left without adequate support with shortened careers. One of the prime objectives of establishing a dedicated sports medicine facility is to fill this void. We want to help sportspersons from across the country get back to their field with the best of help,” says Dr HS Chhabra, medical director and chief of Spine Services.

A sports injury is the term that broadly refers various injuries and joint problems that occur most commonly among sportspersons. For example a tennis elbow, a hamstring sprain, a muscle tear, a knee injury, shoulder injury, a groin pull or an ankle sprain are injuries that can happen to anybody but are more common among people who play active sports. Some of these injuries may be minor and may heal with medication, physiotherapy and rest. On the other hand, some injuries may require surgical intervention to repair damaged muscles or ligaments. In these cases, arthroscopic technology proves to be very useful as it helps heal the injury without causing much trauma to the body in the form of cuts and bleeding.

“Lack of awareness about the consequences of injuries often put careers of sportspersons in disarray. In smaller centers, sportspersons often train without any expert guidance altogether. In fact, such is the state of sports in our country that a majority of young sportspersons are not even educated about appropriate warm up and stretching procedures and the need for right training practices. In the absence of right trainers, many fend for themselves and end up with serious injuries. Also arthroscopic techniques are equally useful in treating problems in non-sportspersons such as shoulder pain in middle aged people,” adds Dr.Maninder Singh, consultant trauma and orthopaedics, ISIC.

ISIC also provides courses such as Masters in Sports Physiotherapy to train a new generation of physiotherapists in sports training.