Have you ever experienced a popping or snapping sensation in your hip when walking or shifting your body? You may be experiencing Snapping Hip Syndrome, also known as Dancer’s Hip. While typically harmless, Snapping Hip Syndrome can cause painful swelling of the fluid sacs that cushion joints. Luckily, many patients have success treating Snapping Hip Syndrome with home treatments and physical therapy.

Causes & Symptoms

Snapping Hip Syndrome occurs when a tendon or muscle moves over the knobby bones in one’s hip. The most common symptom that patients experience is a cracking or snapping sound and sensitivity when exercising the hip. (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons)

While baseball players often experience shoulder injuries, the knee is also a common potential pain point. Due to the complex bone, cartilage, ligament, and tendon structure, any movement—like running from base to base, twisting while your foot is planted or landing on a flexed knee sliding into home—can result in a serious knee injury requiring treatment at MidAmerica’s Palos Hills or Mokena clinics.

Clubfoot is a rare birth defect in which an infant’s foot is turned inward, often so severely that the bottom of the foot is facing upwards or sideways.

There are fewer than 200,000 recorded cases per year in the United States, with boys twice as likely to be diagnosed with the deformity than girls. While most cases of clubfoot are diagnosed at birth, many cases can also initially be detected during a prenatal ultrasound. In about half the cases, both of the infant’s feet are affected.

Baseball season is in full swing and with it comes celebrated wins, upsetting losses, and inevitable injuries. While we hope your season doesn’t result in the latter, we want to make sure you know where to turn if it does. This three-part blog series outlines three common baseball injuries treatable at MidAmerica’s Palos Hills and Mokena clinics: Rotator cuff tears, knee injuries and elbow tendonitis. So no matter what position you’re playing on the field, you know where to turn to for the care you need.

Rotator Cuff Tears

Rotator cuff tears are a common baseball injury, especially for pitchers. Your rotator cuff keeps your arm in its socket. It’s made up of a group of four muscles that combine as a tendon to help rotate and move your arm. This is why pitchers often fall victim to this injury.

Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that typically forms just prior to puberty. While most cases of scoliosis are so mild they do not necessitate treatment, there are cases of scoliosis that have been linked to conditions such as muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. If left untreated, scoliosis may also result in heart and lung problems. Luckily, this condition is treatable at MidAmerica’s Palos Hills and Mokena clinics.

Sciatica is a term describing the symptoms of leg pain originating in the lower back, traveling through the buttock and down the sciatic nerve located at the back of each leg. The sciatic nerve is the largest single nerve in the body, made up of individual nerve roots branching from the spine in the lower back.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a pinched nerve in the wrist that can cause, numbness and tingling in the hand and arm. It is due to compression of the median nerve, which passes through the carpal tunnel at the base of the wrist and into the hand.

As pressure builds within the carpal tunnel, the median nerve no longer conducts electricity properly which leads to the symptoms of numbness and tingling in the hand and fingers. As Carpal Tunnel Syndrome progresses it may limit your ability to work, participate in sports, or perform daily activities. It’s a condition that affects nearly 3 million Americans annually and is treatable at MidAmerica’s Palos Hills and Mokena clinics.

The spine consists of vertebrae and discs. Between the vertebrae and discs are spaces, and when this space is narrowed it can place pressure on the spinal cord and the nerves traveling through the spine into the arms and legs. When this happens, it is known as spinal stenosis.