Superficial peroneal nerve injury in a professional runner: A case study on the importance of diagnosis

There’s a debate in the physical profession right now about whether or not a structural diagnosis of an injury matters. Here at EVOLVE, we think that in most cases, the structure matters, and matters a lot. Patients who have gone to physical therapy elsewhere are often surprised by our focus on diagnosis in the initial evaluation.

There’s a few main reasons why diagnosis is central to our process. With a proper diagnosis, we can:

- Give a more accurate prognosis based on rates of tissue healing.

- Provide targeted strategies to avoid aggravation of the injured structure

- Deliver more focused hands-on treatments to decrease symptoms and optimize the healing response

- Choose the most effective therapeutic exercises, so our patients have just a few key things to focus on, rather than a long list of scattershot exercises

- Get our patients back to doing what they love, quickly (this is perhaps most important!)