Sports Medicine

Treatment, Prevention, Performance
Lost playing time and sub-par performance impact every athlete at some time in his or her playing career. Today’s more physical, aggressive styles of play at all levels of sport put a tremendous demand on any athlete—high school, college and even professional. We see and read about numerous foot and lower leg injuries on a daily basis:

• Toe injuries—“turf toe”
• Heel pain
• Arch pain/plantar fasciitis
• Ankle sprains
• Metatarsal “stress” fractures
• Shin splints
• Knee, hip and back pain.

Finally, there is a place that can help. The St. John’s Mercy Foot Center specializes in providing three key services to athletes and athletic organizations:

• Analysis to aid in the diagnosis of lower extremity sports injuries
• Preventive analysis to help avoid injury and the propensity for sports injury
• Analysis to help improve and optimize athletic performance 

The St. John’s Mercy Foot Center’s Computerized Gait Analysis Lab uses computerized technology to evaluate the stability of the stance and gait of the athlete and to diagnose whether or not he or she has the propensity for an injury. It also can evaluate the cause of the injury and help determine the best treatment plan.

In addition, with its mobile capabilities, this computerized system can be used either in the lab or on-site to evaluate the stance and improve performance of athletes whose sports derive their greatest power from the lower extremity, such as golf, tennis, baseball, track and weight lifting. This analysis then can be used to optimize performance.

Using Gait Analysis

• Computerized gait analysis with three-dimensional motion cameras
• In-shoe pressure mapping
• Orthotics

The system combines computer-aided medical technology with biomechanics to create a tool that revolutionizes analysis, interpretation and treatment of all athletic conditions.

© 2008 St. John's Mercy Health Care
615 S. New Ballas Rd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63141