Sara Jurek MD

Sara Jurek MD Sara Jurek, M.D. is an orthopaedic surgeon in Seattle, WA specializing in sports medicine and shoulder and elbow surgery

Shoulder Surgery + Surgical Sports Medicine

WARNING: This post contains surgical photos. This is the tumor from the previous post, now excised. This was sent to pat...
11/19/2022

WARNING: This post contains surgical photos. This is the tumor from the previous post, now excised. This was sent to pathology for analysis and we will wait to find out if it is a lipoma (a benign tumor composed of fat cells) or something else.

This patient broke his clavicle skiing. He was in the trees and inadvertently slammed his shoulder into a tree. The firs...
03/03/2022

This patient broke his clavicle skiing. He was in the trees and inadvertently slammed his shoulder into a tree.

The first xray shows a displaced distal clavicle fracture. A fracture in this location in the clavicle has a higher likelihood of not healing with nonoperative treatment.

The fracture is right at the end of the bone, making it difficult to secure with a plate and screws.

The second X-rays shows the clavicle after surgery. The fracture fragments were repositioned back to their anatomic location and held in place with very strong suture wrapped around the bony pieces and through the adjacent soft tissues. This is not the typical way to fix a clavicle fracture but was necessary in this case. The patient is now almost 2 months out from surgery and has no pain in his clavicle and full range of motion of his shoulder. 💪🏽

Sometimes what we remove in the OR is just as important as what we put in.These two pictures show bone that was removed ...
01/29/2022

Sometimes what we remove in the OR is just as important as what we put in.

These two pictures show bone that was removed from patients’ shoulders as part of shoulder replacement surgery.

The first picture shows three large bony fragments, termed “loose bodies,” which can cause symptoms of locking, catching, and pain. I think of these loose bodies in a shoulder as being very much like rocks in your shoe: they are not dangerous and can be ignored if they’re not giving a patient much trouble, but they can also drive you absolutely crazy with how irritating and limiting they can be. Not all patients with shoulder arthritis develop loose bodies, but many patients do. This patient was incredibly happy to no longer have his shoulder catch whenever he tried to reach or lift his arm up.

The second picture shows the humeral head after it was removed from the shoulder during shoulder replacement surgery. Notice the worn, injured cartilage surface. The shoulder replacement implant replaces this worn surface with a smooth metal one.

This is the follow up to the previous post which showed failure of fixation with broken screws.The patient had a very su...
10/29/2021

This is the follow up to the previous post which showed failure of fixation with broken screws.

The patient had a very successful surgery and is now status post a revision of the humeral shaft fracture.

You’ll notice that the plate is in a different location than the previous plate (and is slightly thicker). I was able to fix the fracture without removing the broken screws that are still in place in the proximal fragment. It is fine to leave these broken screws where they are and it minimizes trauma to the bone.

The patient is doing very well and has full use of her arm without pain. 💪🏽

This 29-year-old patient fractured her humerus in a fall and had surgery to fix it. She was doing very well after the su...
10/28/2021

This 29-year-old patient fractured her humerus in a fall and had surgery to fix it. She was doing very well after the surgery but then had a minor trauma where she reached back and felt something pop in her arm. These are the x-rays immediately after that event.

The x-rays show failure of the hardware with four broken screws in the humerus proximally. The screws distally are still in place. The fracture is displaced and angulated.

Treatment options for this include attempting conservative (nonoperatively) treatment to treat this nonoperatively in a splint versus performing a revision surgery which would involve removing the current hardware and re-fixing the fracture with new hardware.

This college student injured his left shoulder when he fell really hard while skiing. He hit so hard that he sustained a...
09/22/2021

This college student injured his left shoulder when he fell really hard while skiing. He hit so hard that he sustained a concussion and wasn’t sure exactly how he landed, but after the fall, he had severe left shoulder pain and couldn’t raise his arm. Before this injury, he did not have any trouble at all with his left shoulder.

take a look at the first x-ray. Can you see anything that is injured? The second x-ray points out two separate injuries

Blue arrow points to a nondisplaced greater tuberosity fracture. The red arrow points to a small avulsion fracture of the insertion of the rotator cuff.

This is a very unusual pattern of injury, because there are two separate locations of injury. Typicallg with this type of shoulder injury, a patient will sustain a greater tuberosity proximal humerus fracture or an injury to their rotator cuff but not both.

The other unusual aspect of this particular case is that this patient is quite young to have a rotator cuff injury.

There is more to the story so more posts to come….

Here’s some awesome news: I’m back in West Seattle every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month seeing patients in clinic. Ca...
09/14/2021

Here’s some awesome news: I’m back in West Seattle every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month seeing patients in clinic.

Call 206.386.2600 to schedule an appointment.

Our satellite clinic is located at 3623 SW Alaska Street. Seattle, WA 98126.

This is the patient from yesterday’s post, now with a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty to treat her displaced proxima...
08/06/2021

This is the patient from yesterday’s post, now with a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty to treat her displaced proximal humerus fracture (see second X-ray of her shoulder pre-op). This will allow her to gently move her shoulder right away and should give her excellent pain relief and function going forward.

This active 92 year-old patient came into my office a week after a fall with shoulder pain. Her x-rays showed a non-disp...
08/05/2021

This active 92 year-old patient came into my office a week after a fall with shoulder pain. Her x-rays showed a non-displaced proximal humerus fracture and our plan was to allow this to heal for another three or four weeks and then start physical therapy.

She was doing really well with physical therapy until suddenly she had increased pain and couldn’t lift her arm. The x-ray on the right explains why. The humeral head fracture fragment has completely displaced from the humeral shaft fragment.

Most minimally or non-displaced proximal humerus fractures do very well with non-operative management. This was definitely an exception to that general rule.

I love my interactions with my patients. I get to learn so many interesting things and meet (and hopefully help) so many...
07/04/2021

I love my interactions with my patients. I get to learn so many interesting things and meet (and hopefully help) so many interesting people. In the preop area before surgery, our patients are instructed to write their initials on the operative shoulder to make sure we are all on the same page and that surgery is done on the correct side. Sometimes my patients can’t resist adding some additional artwork 🤩🤣.

Sometime shoulder pain is not shoulder pain at all.This very active 68 year-old patient saw me for severe, vague right s...
12/10/2020

Sometime shoulder pain is not shoulder pain at all.

This very active 68 year-old patient saw me for severe, vague right shoulder and chest pain that came on in the middle of the night. He had not had an injury and stated that the pain was so severe that it brought him to tears. He did not have any other symptoms besides this pain and his physical exam was completely normal except for tenderness over a small area of his pec muscle.

Because of his unusual presentation and the severity of his pain, I ordered a shoulder MRI which was normal and a chest MRI which showed a lesion in his spine (blue arrows). We then ordered a dedicated MRI of his spine which showed a mass which was severely compressing his spinal cord (yellow “x”).

Compare the 3rd image (which shows the spinal cord being compressed by the mass) with the 4th image (which shows normal spinal cord without compression surrounded by spinal fluid (the bright white area identified with the red arrow).

He ended up undergoing emergency surgical removal of the tumor. Fortunately, the tumor was a benign (meaning not cancer) lesion called a meningioma. He is now doing very well and is expected to make a full recovery. His pain that brought him to see was gone when he woke up from surgery.

Address

601 Broadway Suite 700
Seattle, WA
98104

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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+12063862600

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