STAMFORD, Conn. -- Thanks to America's love affair with professional sports, the terms ACL, MCL and others have become as much a part of sport parlance as home run and touchdown. What do these loft-referenced ligaments do, and more importantly, how are they injured? There are four main stabilizing ligaments of the knee that connect the thigh bone to the lower leg:Anterior cruciate ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Charles Cornell answers your questions on Avascular necrosis in the second part of a two-part series. The first article can be read here.What should you do if you are diagnosed with avascular necrosis?If you are diagnosed with AVN, seek treatment from a specialist in the disease. Endocrinologists, rheumatologists and orthopedic ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Charles Cornell answers your questions on Avascular necrosis in the first part of a two-part series. What is avascular necrosis?Avascular necrosis, or AVN, is a bone disorder that results from vascular injury. Issues arise when a bone that is nourished by microscopic blood vessels lacks cross circulation. When the area of bone ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Sabrina Strickland answers your questions on frozen shoulders.What exactly is ‘frozen shoulder’? How would I know if I’m suffering from this condition?A frozen shoulder is initially a painful shoulder without a history of trauma that then progresses to a painful stiff shoulder and eventually just a stiff shoulder. It is often ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Dr. Robert Marx, a sports medicine surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery, tackles the world of ACL injuries. My son tore his ACL playing high school soccer. How will this affect him later in life? Hopefully it won’t. Any patient who tears their ACL is at higher risk of knee arthritis, but it is certainly not a guarantee.I heard that ACL injuries are different for ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Alice Chen answers questions on what steps to take when getting back in shape.Is diet or exercise more important for well-being?For health maintenance, both diet and exercise are essential. Diet supplies the body with the building blocks for the maintenance of good health. Exercise takes the “raw goods” of good nutrition and builds ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- HSS pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. Daniel Green answers questions about diagnosing scoliosis and how it's treated.What is scoliosis?Scoliosis causes the spine to curve sideways to varying degrees in an “S” or “C” shape. It can cause the bones of the spine to turn so that one part of the body, such as a shoulder or hip, looks to be higher than the other. Scoliosis ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Jordan Metzl answers questions on marathon and injury prevention. Is there any way to treat plantar fibromas?This is kind of a rare entity. Plantar fibroma is a non-malignant thickening of the feet’s deep connective tissue and can cause the foot to become stiff and painful. Try rolling your foot on a lacrosse ball to loosen up the ...

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Hospital for Special Surgery's Dr. Andrew Sama answers some questions about spinal stenosis.What is spinal stenosis?Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal, which results in pressure on the nerves either in the central part of the canal, in the sides of the canal under the joints, or in the windows through which the nerves exit the canal. This can happen in ...

STAMFORD, Conn. - About 12 years ago, a friend of mine suggested that we start riding bicycles for exercise. As an orthopedic surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery, I was receptive to the idea of maintaining my health, though a bit wary of the possibility of injury from city cycling. Little did I know that this was the start of a major transformation in my life. I was soon hooked ...