Ask the Ortho
Dr.
Mark Mariani, M.D. is a superb Orthopedic and Sport Medicine
physician practicing Tacoma, WA.
"My role in caring for my patients is to find out what matters most
to them - how their injury affectrs their live, how to best restore
their functions, and to help them return to an active, healthy
life".
-Dr. Mariani
Of significant note is Dr. Mariani's medical training background and
studies.
His undergraduate studies were completed at Pacific Lutheran
University and he graduated from the University of Washington School
of Medicine. He trained in
family medicine at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona,
CA and completed a sports medicine fellowship through a combined
program at the University of California, Davis and the University of
California, Berkley.
During his medical fellowship at Berkley, Dr. Mariani worked with
the men's gymnastics team. Also notable is Dr. Mariani current
capacity as the head team physician for Pacific Lutheran University
and a team physician for both the Tacoma Rainiers AAA baseball club
(Seattle Mariner’s farm club,
and for Stadium High School. It
is not often you find a sport medicine doctor with both previous and
active assignments in caring for collegiate athletes.
Dr. Mariani took over caring for my gymnastics injuries after the unfortunate loss of Dr. Kunkle in a freak scuba diving accident. The first thing he asked me when we met was where I was in my gymnastics career. Before he even started evaluating my injury status, he asked what my goals were in the sport, because that would influence his course of treatment. After getting to know him, I asked if he would be willing to serve as our “Ask the Ortho” expert. He said he would be happy to do so.
We are very lucky to have him on board with the Iron Cross Foundation. You can send questions that you want to have him answer about gymnastics related injuries – and even how you might prevent them – through our website and he will answer them for you. He has helped me – and some of my teammates already. I know he can be of help to you too! So send us your questions and we will get them answered for you.
Have a sport medicine question? Injury you are concerned about. Sent your question to info@ironcrossfoundation.org, and Dr. Mariani will respond via email and the answer will also be posted here.
- Logan Melander
NOTE: Dr. Mariani is not a replacement for going to
the doctor. If you are hurt, you need to tell your coach and your
own doctor and have things checked out sooner than later.
Question:
Lots of male gymnasts seem to have problems with growth plate
injuries. Could you please explain what a growth plate is and how
what a growth plate fracture is? How long do they typically take to
heal and what happens if they don’t?
Answer:
The growth plate is really known in medical terms as the pheisis,
and it is the area of the bone where the bone actually grows longer.
The pheisis is actually cartilage that duplicates itself and then
gets ossified into bone. The reason that it is frequently injured is
that it is cartilage and not bone. You get a separation of the bone
at that cartilage plate – and that is what is called a growth plate
injury. And those injuries have different classifications depending
on the shape of the fracture from the growth plate.
The main complication of having a growth plate fracture is that the
bone may fuse across the growth plate. You may get odd growth at
that area or the bone may start to bend at the growth plate because
part of it is fused and part of it is not. So that is why it is
important to have someone follow that kind of fracture over a period
of time with a series of x-rays to make sure that everything is
alright in terms of the growth and to make sure that it does not
have any kind of deformity.
Growth plates normally heal anywhere from within five to six weeks
and after it is healed it should be as strong as it was before.
