We could not be more proud of our newest member to the Excel team!
Living in the cradle of modern medicine has its benefits: Namely, having access to the world’s best physicians for everything from a simple checkup to serious surgery. The only question is how to sort through all of the options to find the care you need, when you need it. The answer? Our annual Top Doctors directory. A collaboration with the healthcare research company Castle Connolly Top Doctors, it showcases the finest physicians in the area, as chosen by their peers. Use our handy FindIt tool to discover new physicians by specialty or simply check if your favorite doc got a nod this year. Either way, we’re sure you’ll find the list enlightening—after all, there’s nothing more important than your health, especially right now.
High School Athletic Trainers on alert for injuries with start of Fall Sports
By Matthew Reid / mreid@gatehousemedia.com
Posted Aug 30, 2019 at 7:00 PM
Jennifer Sturtevant and her colleagues often joke that once mid-August rolls around, their social lives take a serious hit.
That’s because for Sturtevant, an athletic training and wellness coordinator for MelroseWakefield Healthcare who serves as a trainer for multiple high schools on the North Shore, the end of summer is when student football players get back to practice, leading to a slew of injuries to treat. Things only get worse when other fall sports teams return to action and injuries start to pile up.
More children go to the emergency room for sports-related injuries in September than at any other time of the year, according to an analysis of two decades of hospital data by GateHouse Media.
Football accounts for more than half of all sports-related visits in September for patients younger than 18. ER trips due to soccer and volleyball injuries also peak that month.
The numbers come from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a database run by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for more than four decades. About 100 hospitals from around the country participate, sending detailed data about a broad spectrum of ER visits to the commission.
“For sure, September is the start of our busiest season,” Sturtevant said. “You have kids coming back from a long summer, and while some might have trained, others may have had jobs or just spent a few months having fun. When they jump back into sports, it can lead to more and more injuries.”
MelroseWakefield Healthcare contracts with six area high schools for trainers to be on site at schools on a daily basis for practices and games. Trainers provide both injury prevention as well as acute care for injuries that occur on the field.
“We have to be prepared for anything and everything,” Sturtevant said. “There are many different types of injuries we look out for.”
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph Czarnecki works for Woburn-based Excel Orthopedic Specialists and MelroseWakefield Hospital. He said so many injuries occur as students go back to school that Excel opens up a special Monday evening sports clinic to handle overflow cases.
It offers same-day evaluation, stitching, braces, casts, X-rays and more on site.
“Football is a big contributor to what we see, but it’s not uncommon this time of year to see any number of both contact and non-contact injuries,” Czarnecki said. “If kids are out of practice it’s easy for them to jam a finger doing something as simple as catching a ball. We see a lot of cross-country runners getting shin splints and soccer players (especially girls) suffering ACL sprains. We see injuries of all types.”
Risks of concussion
Perhaps the most discussed type of sports injury, from peewee leagues all the way to the professional ranks, is a concussion.
“There has been a marked increase in the awareness of concussions and head injuries in recent years,” Czarnecki said. “These were not always appreciated as being traumatic brain injuries in the past, but with the information we have now, and with awareness by parents, coaches, trainers and even students, we are seeing more attention given to treating head injuries.”
According to the data examined, football tends to have high concussion rates among high school athletes. Other high-contact sports such as ice hockey and wrestling had even higher concussion rates.
Still, “every sport is safe if the right things are followed,” said Ali Flury, sports safety program manager for Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent childhood injury. “You do your pre-participation physical, you do your warmup and stretch routine every single day, you drink water, you wear the appropriate equipment.”
Emergency room physicians say they are encouraged to see more young athletes asking questions about concussions and overuse injuries.
“Parents are much more aware of the risks in playing contact sports, and about the nature of head injuries, and this is being discussed more in the open,” Sturtevant said. “As a trainer, I might assess 20 to 30 head injuries throughout the year across all sports. But there is a system in place now, between parents and trainers and the physicians who treat student athletes. I think parents really appreciate that there are so many people looking out for their kids and monitoring their recovery throughout the whole process.”
A shifting mindset
Czarnecki said the culture around sports can play a big role in injuries and treatment, with football being a good example.
“It is seen as the ultimate team sport,” he said. “Players want so much to be a part of the team, and not let their teammates down. That’s why they might underreport injuries to a trainer or brush it off to get back out onto the field.”
He said there is also a trend of more athletes using sports to get scholarships or help them get into college, which leads to added pressures to push themselves to succeed.
“Another trend we are seeing more and more of now is single-sport specialization, where before students might play three different sports during the year and play sports over the summer,” Czarnecki said. “When you practice and play the same sport year-round, you are activating specific muscle groups, which could lead to areas of the body breaking down faster.”
Czarnecki said new regulations, such as limiting the number of practices football teams can have over the summer, can help.
Sturtevant has seen firsthand how putting prevention first can help reduce the number of cases.
“Coming back from the summer, it’s important to remind coaches and players the importance of proper warm-up routines, about starting slow and progressively increasing the intensity of practices, things like that,” she said. “Trainers can’t be on every field all at once, so it’s important to be smart about things and not push too hard.”
—GateHouse Media national enterprise reporter Daphne Chen contributed to this report
Dr. Joseph Czarnecki spoke to a group of colleagues about “Advances in Hip Preservation Surgery” for the weekly CME Program at Winchester Hospital. It was an excellent turnout and attendees learned about the uniqueness of hip joint surgery!
Specific areas of interest for Dr. Czarnecki include Endoscopic Proximal Hamstring Tendon repairs Did you know he was the first Orthopaedic Surgeon in New England to perform this technique? We pride ourselves in being experts in what WE do so that you can get back to doing what YOU do!
At the end of February seven people from our Excel Family took a week long mission trip to the Dominican Republic as part of the Levine Surgical Team with Children of the Nations. This trip is near and dear to our hearts as we have a group go almost every year. We help others by bringing our Orthopaedic skills and medical care to heal their injuries and hopefully improve their lives.
Excel would like to extend a warm welcome Dr. Daniel Haber to Excel. Dr. Haber is a 5th year orthopaedic resident at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic program doing his elective rotation in sports medicine with Dr. Czarnecki.
Excel will be attending a couple of upcoming health and wellness events! We will have a table and will be bringing plenty of giveaways including chapstick, hand sanitizer, tote bags, t-shirts, etc. Don’t miss your chance to come say hi and visit some other great booths, as well! Event details below:
The first is the Health and Wellness Expo in Stoneham. This event is on Saturday, April 6th from 9-1 pm. The event takes place at the Stoneham Middle School.
The second event that we will be attending is the Woburn Health and Wellness Fair! It takes place on Saturday, May 4th from 10-1 pm at the James L. McKeown Woburn Boys and Girls Club.
Excel offers monthly baseline testing for children age 10 and over. We offer a group discount for youth teams and organizations that wish to have their teams/programs tested. In the unfortunate circumstance of a concussion, we offer follow-up testing under the care of our Physician Assistants, in conjunction with each child’s Primary Care Physician. This process allows Excel to effectively manage each child’s concussion and helps guide a safe return to activity and determine the best course of action for each head injury.
ImPACT is a 20-minute computerized test that’s been scientifically validated to measure the effects of a concussion. After an athlete receives a preseason baseline test, his/her data is stored on a secure, HIPAA compliant server. If a concussion is suspected, a follow-up test is administered to see if the results have changed from the baseline. This comparison helps identify and manage the concussion. However, if no baseline test was performed prior to suffering a concussion, we are still able to do a follow-up test and compare it to the standard baseline for their age/weight group.
ImPACT is important as it can help answer difficult questions regarding an athlete’s readiness to return to play or school and protects them from the potentially serious consequences from returning too soon. ImPACT measures subtle changes in cognitive functions that cannot be measured using traditional MRI or CT scans. 200+ professional sports teams (including the majority of the NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA & NASCAR) utilize ImPACT concussion testing.
To make an appointment or for further information, please contact Bill Martin at bmartin@excelortho.com or call 781-782-1327.
Excel Orthopaedic Specialists’ staff members got in the Halloween spirit by wearing their costumes to work! We had a bunch of great costumes but the PT patients chose Scott Havemeyer as the best with his JJC costume. Thank you everyone for dressing up!
Excel Orthopaedic Specialists is proud to partner with many local schools, events, etc. We were a proud hole sponsor for the Officer Sean A. Collier golf tournament
We partnered with the Lexington Education Foundation
We were a sponsor of the recent Ride for Angels event and even had a few riders of our own
In addition to all of these we also sponsor many local schools/clubs and place ads in their yearly athletic programs. A few include: Lexington High School, Winchester High School, Woburn High School, North Shore Skate Club, Stoneham Ice Arena, etc.
If you are interested in Excel sponsoring your event, school or club please contact ocollins@excelortho.com
Excel Orthopaedic Specialists has launched a new website! The update is modern, clean and very easy to navigate. The goal with the update was to provide users with a better version of what we already offered. We wanted it to be easy to go on our site (still excelortho.com) and find everything you need in one place! We have expanded each individual doctor’s profile page, so you can easily explore and find out more about the doctor you will be coming to see. We took new pictures and updated bios of our therapists to easily allow you to feel comfortable that what you see is what you get. We made it easier to find our Frequently asked questions and forms you may need to download right on the home page! We hope you love this project as much as we do. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know! -> ocollins@excelortho.com
As the Coronavirus situation remains ever-changing, the safety of our patients and employees remains our top priority.
We have returned to normal business hours and are currently seeing patients in our office for ALL orthopaedic medical appointments as well as Physical & Occupational Therapy appointments.
We are still offering Televisits as an option for your care.
We want to assure you we are maintaining strict safety guidelines in regard to sanitation of our office and social distancing guidelines as outlined by the MA Dept. of Public Health and the CDC. Please read this updated letter to our patients for further details.
We will continue to provide updates on our website and on our Facebook page. Thank you for your patience, trust and understanding during this challenging time. Be well and stay safe!
Dr. Joseph Czarnecki spoke to a group of colleagues about “Advances in Hip Preservation Surgery” for the weekly CME Program at Winchester Hospital. It was an excellent turnout and attendees learned about the uniqueness of hip joint surgery!
