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CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Local health care providers remind us that with spring sports, you may save time with injuries by staying out of the emergency room.

Maybe it’s been the warmer temperatures or that we have spring fever and just want to get out and get active again, but OrthoCincy healthcare providers tell us their orthopedic urgent care, which has everything from X-rays to casting, has been really busy these days.

The most common injuries they see are ankle sprains, strains, and fractures.

“The vast majority of ankle fractures we can treat as outpatient. Some of those more serious or significant problems end up in the hospital for a night or two, but that’s typically, in my world, that’s an outpatient surgery, to fix the ankle and patients go back home,” said OrthoCincy ankle surgeon Dr. Nick Gates.

Dr. Gates says getting treated right away for these injuries can help limit improper healing, and healing for these can be a bit of a lengthy process.

“Some of those ankle fractures, we can have people in a walking boot and pretty functional within a couple of weeks while they are recovering,” he said. “Some of those ankle fractures, you are going to spend six to eight weeks on crutches.”

Dr. Gates says just because you sprain it, that doesn’t means you wont need surgical repair with foot and ankle injuries.

To learn more about Dr. Gates and other OrthoCincy physicians, click HERE.