Putting Your Health First Podcast: Doctors Schuyler DeJong and Kyle Rockwell Discuss Sports and Stress Injuries

Eighty to 90 percent of musculoskeletal complaints don’t require surgery

Health First Orthopedic Surgeon Schuyler DeJong and Sports Medicine Doctor Kyle Rockwell jump on the ‘Putting Your Health First’ podcast to explain when painful joints require surgery.

Find “Putting Your Health First” wherever you listen to podcasts or visit HF.org/podcast.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – When an athlete’s knee buckles and they go to the ground, it may mean a trip through the MRI and perhaps reconstructive knee surgery, but many sports and stress injuries don’t herald that same journey, says Health First Orthopedic Surgeon Schuyler DeJong, MD.

On the latest episode of “Putting Your Health First,” the new podcast produced by Health First, Dr. DeJong is joined by Sports Medicine Doctor Kyle Rockwell, DO. Together, they talk about what may be best for those patients for whom the injury has “more of an insidious onset,” Dr. DeJong says.

“Eighty to 90% of musculoskeletal complaints don’t require surgery,” Dr. Rockwell says.

Identifying the root cause of aches and pains may be the real challenge, he says. And that’s his specialty. Dr. Rockwell uses ultrasound imaging and injections to identify the exact location and nature of an injury.

“I can guide a needle specifically to a spot … and if the pain goes away and that’s the issue, then we can discuss – does the patient explore non-operative therapies, or does that area need surgery?

“I give them conservative and a little bit more aggressive options,” he says.

“You try what you can and sometimes the lack of improvement with some of the less-aggressive options starts guiding you toward a more-aggressive option – if the things you’re trying just aren’t working,” says Dr. DeJong.

PRP For Healing

Dr. Rockwell also discusses the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. PRP treatments utilize patients’ own tissues. Platelets are better known as the blood’s clotting cells, but they contain growth factors that trigger cell reproduction and stimulate tissue regeneration or healing.

“What we can do is take that PRP and inject it into an area of your body” – typically a joint, or a tendon that has diseased tissue – and “it changes the cell signaling environment so it’s not as disorganized an inflammatory response. It kind of calms the area down.”

PRP is a therapy meant to trigger healing in tissue that’s chronically inflamed. It may be paired with physical therapy meant to induce tissue healing and growth that can return a patient to the activity they missed during injury.

Other Podcast Offerings

Earlier this year, Health First launched a new offering – a podcast – to connect listeners with the very best healthcare guidance around. The discussions usually explore innovative procedures, such as weight-loss surgery or structural heart procedures, but sometimes talk centers on how to avoid tragedy, such as the episode this summer that explored swimming safety in light of the shockingly high rates of child drownings reported each year in Florida.

Find “Putting Your Health First” wherever you listen to podcasts or visit HF.org/podcast.

To schedule an appointment to meet with an Orthopedic Specialist or to find another specialty or provider by name, visit HF.org/schedule. Visit HF.org/news to find out what’s happening at Health First.

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