Treatment Details

Brayden presented originally to the office complaining of severe right hip pain that started when he felt a pop followed by immediate pain in his hip flexor region while playing in a competitive lacrosse game for a club team. He also complained of lower back pain that had been chronic for the past 6 months to a year. We began treatment with the hip right away, which we diagnosed with an avulsion of the anterior superior iliac spine of the pelvis, with techniques that included gentle chiropractic adjustments, Active Release Techniques (ART), muscle activation strategies, and passive modalities such as dry needling, electrotherapy, and cupping. At first we did not do anything that would stretch or lengthen the fractured area, but worked exclusively with passive modalities at that region (dry needling, edema massage, electric stim) and only began to lengthen the muscles right in the area after 4 weeks when hard callus formation was completed. During the course of treatment, Brayden's mother noted to us that his lower back pain was improving with our treatments, but that she always wanted to take him to the orthopedic doctor for a second opinion, because she was concerned he was having LBP as his age. Scans revealed spondylolysis of L5/S1, and so we included the treatment of that injury with dry needling. He was advised to rest from sports and exercise for 6 weeks by the orthopedic physician, and we continued building him back up with a lot of core/pelvis/hip rehabilitation that at first focused on bracing and stability, and was later dynamic and geared towards getting him to be able to tolerate the movements that would have lead to his lower back injury in the first place. Brayden made a full recovery and is pain-free in both areas and playing at a high level for a club team out of state as well as his high school academy team.