The Sports Docs Podcast

Our conversation picks back up with an article titled “ Mental toughness in surgeons: Is there room for improvement? ” This paper was published in the December 2019 issue of the Canadian Journal of Surgery and evaluates mental toughness among general surgery residents and staff surgeons using the Mental Toughness Index. The authors found that staff surgeons score significantly higher across all do...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on mindset skills, emotional regulation and mental toughness and feel that orthopedic surgery with Dr. Winston Gwathmey, an orthopedic surgeon at UVA.  We start off our discussion today with an article from the September 2022 issue of the Journal of Surgical Research titled “ Emotional Regulation in Surgery: Fostering Well-Being, Performance, and Leadership .” Thi...

2025 has been a year of real growth for our show! We’ve seen our listenership expand, our community of colleagues grow, and our impact reach more clinicians, athletes and sports medicine professionals than ever before. That only happens because of you —our listeners—who show up every week curious, engaged, and committed to elevating care in sports medicine. This year also brought a milestone we’re...

Welcome to Overtime with the Sports Docs. On each of these mini episodes, Catherine and I chat about a new article or new surgical technique in the field of sports medicine. We’ll give you our quick take on the most recent data and how this data will impact our practice.  Today, we’re breaking down a new study looking at the Hip–Return to Sport after Injury score, or Hip-RSI, and whether it can he...

Today we’re breaking down a common but sometimes career-altering knee injury in professional football – the meniscus tear. We’ll cover how often these happen in the NFL, how players present, what treatment choices look like, timelines for returning to play, and critically – how meniscal injury affects performance and career length But first, a quick refresher: The menisci are two C-shaped fibrocar...

On each of these mini episodes, Catherine and I chat about a new article or new surgical technique in the field of sports medicine. We’ll give you our quick take on the most recent data and how this data will impact our practice.  Today, we’re discussing a brand-new paper hot off the press titled: “ Predictors of Tunnel Widening After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction ” published in the No...

Our conversation picks back up with an article titled “ Patient Outcomes and Return to Play After Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair in Overhead Athletes .”  This systematic review, published in the January 2023 issue of JOT, analyzed 20 studies comprising 692 patients with an average follow-up of 40 months.  The authors found that arthroscopic cuff repair led to significant improvements in patient...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on the thrower’s shoulder with Dr. Sara Edwards, an orthopedic sports medicine and shoulder surgeon at UCSF. We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on different shoulder pathology in the overhead throwing athlete.   We start off our discussion today with a review article from the April 2023 issue of the yellow journal titled “...

Welcome to another episode of Game Plan!  As you might remember from our episode on ACL graft choices, these Game Plan episodes are specifically designed for patients – to hopefully answer some of the questions you have about the most common sports medicine conditions and surgical treatments.  We’re continuing with our favorite topic today – ACL tears – but today’s episode is going to focus on ris...

Welcome to Overtime with the Sports Docs. Today, we’re talking about Cyclops Syndrome after ACL reconstruction surgery. We review an article published in this month’s issue of AJSM titled “ Risk Profile for Cyclops Syndrome Necessitating Reoperation After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction .” But first, let’s back up a bit and discuss the basics, starting with what Cyclops Syndrome is. Cycl...

Welcome to GamePlan with the Sports Docs. On each of these mini episodes, we chat about a new article or new surgical technique in the field of sports medicine. We’ll give you our quick take on the most recent data and how this data will be impacting our practice. Today, we’re talking about hamstring injuries in the NFL. And if your fantasy team is anything like my fantasy team, it currently looks...

Today, we’re heading back to the NFL to discuss a surprisingly serious injury – turf toe. In Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked and sustained left great toe injury.  This was ultimately diagnosed as a grade 3 turf toe injury requiring surgery.  Burrow was placed on injured reserved and elected to undergo surgical repair. While the surgery reportedly...

We get lots of questions from our patients and our listeners each week. And they’re great questions, so rather than responding individually we thought we’d do these mini episodes where highlight some of the best questions and our responses, with some literature to back it up. Today we will be tackling:  “What are the most studied and most effective supplements currently for sports medicine patient...

Today, we’re diving into one of the most serious injuries in American football, and that is a knee dislocation. Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill recently suffered a devastating knee injury in the Monday Night Football game versus the Jets. He dislocated his knee resulting in multiple torn ligaments, including his ACL. Tyreek was taken to the hospital directly from the game for further evalu...

Welcome to another episode of Game Plan! These Game Plan episodes are specifically designed for patients – to hopefully answer some of the questions you have about the most common sports medicine conditions and surgical treatments. But today’s episode is a little different and we’re excited about it! Today, we’re focusing on common injuries in the NFL and how these injuries impact time missed and...

In this episode, we’re going to continue our discussion with Dr. Travis Matheney and focus on surgical treatment options for borderline hip dysplasia. Our conversation picks back up with a review article published in the December 2024 issue of Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine titled “ Borderline Hip Dysplasia - Best Treated with Hip Arthroscopy or Periacetabular Osteotomy? ” Dr. Andrea...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on the management of borderline hip dysplasia with Dr. Travis Matheney, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital. We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on the treatment options for borderline hip dysplasia.  We’ll start off our discussion today with an article titled “ Periacetabular Osteotomy Improve...

Our conversation picks back up with an article published just last month in AJSM titled “ Player Tracking Metrics to Predict Risk of ACL Injuries During Change-of-Direction Scenarios in the NFL . ” The authors analyzed 216 ACL injuries that occurred in the NFL from 2018–2022 to determine how player tracking data could help predict injury risk, particularly during change-of-direction or “CoD” plays...

On today’s episode we’re focusing on wearable technology for athlete performance, recovery and injury prevention with Dr. Jacob Calcei, an orthopedic surgeon at University Hospitals in Cleveland and team physician for the Cleveland Browns.  We’ll start off our discussion today with an article titled “ Wearable Performance Devices in Sports Medicine ” from the January 2016 issue of Sports Health. T...

Today’s episode is going to focus on the management of rotator cuff retears — including tips and tricks for successful revision repair and augmentation options. We are joined today by two outstanding guests!  Dr. Brian Waterman is a Professor of orthopedic surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Chief of Sports Medicine & Shoulder Surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and...

Today’s episode is going to focus on the management of UCL injuries in throwing athletes. We are joined today by two outstanding guests!  Dr. Michael Banffy is a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Chief of Orthopedic Sports Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, as well as Director of the Orthopedic Sports Medicine Fellowship at Kerlan-Jobe. He is a team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles R...

Today’s episode is going to focus on addressing hip pathology in the setting of dysplasia — soft tissue management alone or with a periacetabular osteotomy. We are joined today by two outstanding guests!  Dr. Jorge Chahla is an Associate Professor of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center and serves as the Director of Biomechanical Research and Director of the International Fellowshi...

Today’s episode is going to focus on lateral augmentation procedures to supplement ACL reconstruction, including lateral extraarticular tenodesis versus anterolateral ligament reconstruction. We are joined today by two outstanding guests!   Dr. Alan Getgood is the Chief of Surgery at Aspetar and Adjunct Professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Western Ontario. He is a clinician scienti...

Today’s episode is going to focus on surgical management of primary and recurrent anterior glenohumeral instability in athletes.  We are joined today by two outstanding guests!  Dr. John Kelly is a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Shoulder Sports Medicine at UPenn Ortho. He is Co-director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship and is a team physician for...

Today’s episode is going to focus on ligament reconstruction in skeletally immature patients – including various growth plate sparing ACL reconstruction techniques, MPFL reconstruction considerations and clinical outcomes. We are joined today by two outstanding guests!  Dr. Mininder Kocher is a professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Sports Medicine and Director of the...