Plantar plate injuries are very common, and they are extremely annoying.
I get lots of questions and comments both from the podcast and from the Doc On The Run YouTube channel about plantar plate sprains.
Today’s episode comes from a question posted by Jason on the Doc On The Run YouTube channel. He asked…
“Can MRI miss a plantar plate strain?”
The short answer is yes, and I’m going to try to explain why.
Can an MRI miss a plantar plate strain?
Well, that’s a great question and that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
View Details »Have you ever been to the doctor and heard this, “You must be allergic to running because you get injured every time you go running.”
A recovering runner and I were on a call talking about how she could get back to running and how to “just go for a run” without getting re-injured.
We were talking about this approach of getting her running fitness back now, and returning to running faster without just sitting around waiting.
She told me something I had never heard.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast we’re talking about running allergies and injury recovery.
View Details »Plantar plate ligament sprains are a tough injury for runners. Plantar plate tears can cause a lot of pain in the ball of the foot. Unless you treat them correctly, that pain can persist for a long time. As a result plantar plate injuries can be super frustrating.
Unfortunately, plantar plate tears are often diagnosed when you get an MRI of the foot. I often get questions from runners asking me whether or not they have to wait for another MRI before they can run.
Does the plantar plate ligament need to heal on an MRI before I can run?
Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
View Details »If you recently got an MRI and then looked at the MRI report, it may seem like a bunch of gibberish.
What you really want to see is a picture of the actual injury.
So you do the most reasonable thing…you try to look at the actual MRI images to see if you can see the stuff mentioned in the report.
You put your MRI disc in your computer, or you go on an online viewing portal and you pull up your MRI images to try to make sense of it.
You’re trying to figure out if it really picked up your injury or not.
Did the MRI miss my plantar plate sprain?
Can the MRI show me the actual crack in the bone?
Where is the tear in the tendon or ligament?
This episode on the size of the slices might help you. It will also help you a lot if you’re going in to get an MRI because you have an injury and your doctor is going to order an MRI.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about MRI essentials for runners, slice size matters.
View Details »If you’re a runner who got injured and got an MRI, I’ll bet that you’ve already tried to look at it…but you have simply no idea what you’re looking at.
You see there are more than a hundred images of your foot on the MRI. So, you’re not even sure where to start. MRI’s can be really overwhelming!
But MRI images are not really that complicated.
In this series on how to read your own MRI, I’m going to break it down and help you understand your own MRI images, especially if you want to see what was in the MRI report from the radiologist.
Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we’re talking about MRI Essentials for Runners, T1 versus T2 Images.
View Details »There are only a few occasions when you might want to get an MRI on both feet.
Truthfully, getting an insurance company to agree to pay for an MRI on both feet is not easy to do.
A few years ago I helped a runner who was training for marathons when he got injured. He was super fit. But on a long, super steep run in Yosemite he did some damage to tendons in both of his feet.
He really needed an MRI on both feet. So, I wrote an order for his MRI’s. But, when the MRI facility tried to get prioritization, the insurance company denied the MRI request.
That just didn’t make any sense to me.
Is it valuable to get an MRI on both feet?
That’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
View Details »I just got a call from an ultra-marathoner I have seen a number of times over the years.
He is not a wimp. He’s a tough guy. He’s very smart. He knows his body really well, and he got what we suspected was a partial tear in the plantar fascia.
He didn’t get better. He took weeks off. He couldn’t run. He couldn’t even hike! it was killing him, so I ordered an MRI.
I diligently prepared the order for his MRI. I sent it to the facility. I wrote up all the various details which basically proved that his MRI study is medically necessary and completely justified…and they should pay for it.
Well, the insurance company denied prior authorization for his MRI.
You won’t believe this, but the insurance company said he had to have heel pain FOR 6 MONTHS before they would allow him to get an MRI.
What would you do if you’re a runner and you were told you’re going to have to wait six months to get an MRI in order to make a decision about what you would do for treatment?
Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
View Details »If you are a runner who thinks you have a tendon tear, ligament tear or other overtraining injury, you may want an MRI. In fact, you may be convinced an MRI will give you a crystal clear picture of what may be wrong inside your foot or ankle.
But, I believe many many runners and doctors rely way to heavily on MRI for running injuries.
Today we are going to talk about a study published in Foot and Ankle International in 1998.
The research study was led by Dr. Matthew Rocket (a well-respected foot and ankle surgeon) in Houston Texas.
This was a great study comparing the effectiveness of MRI and diagnostic ultrasound when trying to decide whether or not there is an actual tear in a tendon around the foot and ankle.
Is an MRI best way to check for a tendon tear in a runner?
Well, that’s what we’re talking about, today, on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
View Details »Every time a runner calls me who has a plantar plate sprain, they’re trying to figure out how they can know for sure they actually do have a plantar plate sprain. They often also want to know how bad the plantar plate injury really is.
When you’re a runner, the problem with plantar plate sprains is that many doctors will offer a standardized cookie cutter approach.
I most often help runners get better without surgery.
That’s not because I’m a better doctor. It is because I really put a lot of attention into educating injured runners about how to do all of the additional things to get the injury to heal quickly…so that they can skip the surgery.
One way to start healing faster is by imaging the plantar plate to determine the extent of tissue injury.
Plantar plate imaging, MRI vs. Ultrasound.
That’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
View Details »I was just giving 3 lectures on running injuries at a medical conference in Las Vegas.
As is often the case, after one of my lectures one of the physicians in the audience approached me in the hallway to ask a question.
What do you do with activity level when somebody has an old fracture where the bone was broken long ago?
The runner recently had a re-injury at that spot. It has been painful, it’s been swelling, and he’s trying to figure out what to do.
What’s a bone bruise at an old fracture site? Is it a big problem or a little problem?
Well, that’s what we’re talking about today on the Doc On The Run podcast.
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