Yao Ming out of Playoffs with foot fracture

Yes, Yao Ming is out once again from the the playoffs.  This is the third season that Yao has managed to stay out of the playoffs.  Let’s be fair the guy is 7″6 and moving that body up and down the court will take a toll on your body.  Let’s go back to physics. When you lengthen the lever arm you increase the torque at the joint.  Yao also has been unlucky with players stepping on his feet , well he is always under the basket therefore chances of other players stepping on his foot is definatly high.  Not to mention the fact that his foot is very large and it occupies a large space .

Aside from humor i wanted to talk about his injury.   I have tried to read about what exactlly caused the injury to his foot and i have not found much. Rockets team doctor “Clanton” said that he has sustained a hairline fracture in his foot.  He recommended surgery at first but they thought that this fracture can heal on its own.  The team and the dcotor did not discuss what bone in the foot they are talking about so i am going to shet some light on this subject.

A stress fracture is one kind of partial fracture in bones. It results due to unusual or constant stress. This is different to other kinds of fracture which are generally regarded as lone, serious effect. It could be explained as a quite small silver or fracture in the bone this is the reason at times it is called as hairline fracture.

Since they mentioned stress fracture and the said it was a hair line fracture I can tell that this fracture is non-displaced. What does this mean? What this means is that one of the bone in the foot  probably the  mid foot ( see pic area #3) is fractured but the two pieces are not separeted. This is good news because if they were separated he would have needed surgery.  Whenever there is a fracture , in order for this fracture to heal you need 1. bone to bone contact 2. no or minimal movement between the pieces.

Treatment for Yao is immobilization and rest.  He is wearing a Cam walker ( ski boot type of shoe).  This type of shoe has a very rigid rocker bottom which lets him walk without putting any stress on  his foot.  This boot does not let him bend his foot when taking a step and therefore minimizing the movement in his foot.  In the old days we used to cast people but these boots have allowed us to pretty much do the same thing without the hassle of putting the cast on and changing it every week.  Patients like this device better as well since they can take it off when showring etc…..  We still use cast for pediatric patients since they are more likely to be non compliant.

Healing time for bone is about 8-12 weeks that is if everything goes well.  So Yao is out for 8-12 weeks .  His doctor probably will use a bone stimulator to speed up the bone healing.  Bone stimulators have been popular in the last decade. There are few different companies that make these devices and they provide electormagnatic field that stimulates bone healing by varies physiological process ( I am not an expert in this field).

Yao needs to stay off of his foot in order for this fracture to heal.  If and when this does not happen , then he definatly needs surgery.  His doctor will take periodic x-rays /MRI/CT Scans to monitor the bone healing.  When a fracture does not heal it will turn in to what we call non-union.  I hope this does not happen but if it does , he need an operation .  This operation invovles the bones to be separated and cleaned up and put together with some kind of fixation.  Various bone substances are available to make the bones sick together better.

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