2018 – DX

So, you want to exercise, huh!?

Dorian Xuereb
December 28, 2018
Health / Sport
0 Comments

You have heard that exercise is beneficial and healthy, and you want to jump on the bandwagon to start an exercise programme. Well done. This is indeed the first step. The second step is understanding how to go about it. Here are a few things you should know. Types of exercises There are three main types of exercise and these should form the basis of your routine, being mindful of your ultimate goals. If you are after general fitness and staying in shape these should be admixed in equal proportions. Aerobic or cardio exercise This is rhythmic activity whose main goal…

Adult flatfoot

Dorian Xuereb
December 18, 2018
Health / Medical
0 Comments

As orthopedic specialists, we get referred a number of cases labeled as ‘Flatfoot’. While there are a number of conditions that give flat feet, the most common reason why an adult would develop a new pes planus, as we call it, is due to weakness (or insufficiency) of the main muscle responsible of keeping the inner arch of the foot. Most cases we see will be nothing more than symmetrical flexible flatfeet, which is a variant of the norm; but if new onset pain associated with (generally) a single-sided new flatfoot deformity is the case, then professional opinion should be sought…

Shoulder that pain, Sir!

Dorian Xuereb
December 8, 2018
Health / Medical
0 Comments

A common problem patients come looking for orthopedic help is shoulder pain. The main reason is that shoulder pain can be particularly troublesome at night. Disrupt a few nights’ sleep and your livelihood is shattered. The shoulder is a big enough joint that is largely responsible to orient the hand in space to perform the myriad of function the upper limb is responsible for; be it basic personal hygiene to highly skilled functions such as painting or playing an instrument. Anatomy of joint: The great design of this ball and socket joint enables the shoulder to have a wide range of…

Fitter, Happier.

Dorian Xuereb
December 3, 2018
Health / Sport
0 Comments

It is not news that exercise is healthy. It is on the media; public health sectors promote it and just about anyone who does some sport regularly feels good. But how tangible is this? I was recently seeing this patient in clinic who was raving about how his knee pain was making him feel old and disabled. He had to pack up with his running, cycling and even skiing. Eyeballing him I would have given him sixty-three tops - but boy was I wrong. He had clocked seventy-five and was still going strong! Surely, part of it is genetic (and this is also true…

Taxing misnomers

Dorian Xuereb
November 6, 2018
Health
0 Comments

Today I shall talk a bit about an irking bit of my job. As a doctor, I have vowed to educate patients as part of my profession; as most chronic conditions like arthritis involve an understanding from the patients’ end to understand the sometimes less then fast-acting treatment strategies like physiotherapy and lifestyle modifications.

On most clinic days I find myself engrossed in lengthy conversation about the basis of the disease of cartilage, bone, nerves and ligaments; only to get faces twisted in bafflement. On occasion, I even get an interjection like “ah ok, the nerve” when in reality we would have been talking about a tendon all along.

(more…)

A little something about back pain

Dorian Xuereb
November 4, 2018
Health
0 Comments

Let’s talk a bit about back pain. This has to be by far the most common orthopaedic complaint. So the literature has it that about 80% of the population will have back pain at some point in their life. That is close to being as common as the common cold.

Here is the low down on what we need to realize:

Most, but not all back pain is what we call mechanical. This means that the pain is arising from muscle spasm or from the little joints in the back of the vertebrae. This is benign and usually resolves with activity.

Radicular pain is the pain originating from the back BUT actually running down the leg. This is usually due to a pinched nerve somewhere along the course of the sciatic nerve, which incidentally coins the term sciatica. (more…)

Why a new Blog?

So why another blog? We are full of them. Most are talking about day to day issues. This is different. I saw the need to educate the general population. So why, you might add, on the internet? You might think there’s a wealth of info here. You are wrong. Most information google pulls up when you enter knee pain is mostly driven by paid adverts or the more popular websites, which might themselves have their own agenda. Agreed, websites like Medscape and WebMD do a good job of explaining medical stuff. I will be talking about something slightly different.

(more…)