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Sports Medicine Center in Plano Caters to Young Athletes

The Andrews Institute for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Children's Health is now located inside the new Specialty Center 2 at Children's Health in Plano.

The groundbreaking facility offers a wide range of orthopedic and sports medicine services to keep student athletes performing at the top of their game.

Dr. John Polousky, medical director of the institute, said the mission is to keep children from being sidelines because of injuries, starting with proper training and techniques learned at the EXOS sports performance training center.  

Children’s Health Andrews Institute is the first pediatric hospital to team up with EXOS to offer elite performance expertise to youth athletes ages 7 to 22. 

"What we try to do here is train them so that we can prvent injury as they grow and as their bodies change. We keep them with healthy movement patterns," said Polousky. "They can develop those over time and that leads to better performance."

However, injury isn't always preventable.

To help diagnose problems, doctors can use what's called the EOS System, a full-body image scanner that produces X-rays in seconds and cuts down the amount of radiation exposure for children.

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"Traditional X-rays require you to take multiple shots and put them together.

This uses much less radiation, produces beautiful images that you can measure deformities off of and it's really the only one in the region."

If the injury needs nothing more than rehab, doctors can walk patient to the expansive rehabilitation gym which includes another first for a children's hospital in Texas: a Hydroworx pool and underwater treadmill.

Hydrotherapy gives athletes another opportunity to recover and regain strength without the pounding effect of a treadmill.

The underwater treadmill, resistance jet technology, computer and camera systems offer visual feedback to athletes and their therapists.

The Specialty Center 2 building also features four, state-of-the-art operating rooms, with features such as lights that detect and move around objects causing a shadow on the operating table.

Windows let parents watch the procedure being performed on their child.
"When you first hear this, you're kind of taken aback and think, 'Oh my, I am going to watch my child have surgery,' but when they've done this before at the other places in Florida, parents love it!"

The recovery room also has a view.

The 60-yard turf field at the heart of the specialty center can be used in a variety of ways to help strengthen and heal North Texas's young athletes.

The Andrews Institute is located in the Specialty Center 2 Building on the hospital's Plano campus and is open for use to any doctor and their patients, whether children or adults.

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