Brian Ortega's Sports Injuries

Brian Ortega might be the toughest dude in mixed martial arts, but he also suffered some serious damage tonight that could have some real concerns. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Dr. Brian Suter, and this is your number one source for learning about the unique medical side of the world of sports. This fight certainly could have been stopped here. We saw the doctors come out to examine Ortega, and I'll admit it kind of looked a little bit shaky in terms of how well he was doing with answering the doctor's questions and how his eyes were actually functioning. The combination of significant bruising right underneath the inferior orbital rim and the flattening on the right side of his face raises concern for an orbital fracture. There were plenty of punches that could have contributed to this, the least of which being one where Volkanovski landed a right square on Ortega's right eye, forcing it down a little bit. After Ortega came back at the end of the round, he was completely laying flat on his back and somehow managed to get up. There was prominent swelling right at the inferior orbital rim. With trauma to the face and immediate bruising, this raises concern for an orbital fracture. It also generally looks like the right side of his face is a little bit flat and sunken in. When you get a fracture of the inferior orbital rim, you get some flattening in the contour of the soft tissues through your cheek. The challenging part for the doctors is that in mixed martial arts, there are a lot of impacts and shots to the face, making it tough to pick these up in the moment. This is why the doctors go through their exam. The reason orbital fractures are concerning is that they can cause damage to the eye. The muscles that help control eye movements run up along the bones of the orbit. Specifically, when there is a fracture of the inferior orbit, it can pinch the muscle called the inferior rectus. If this muscle gets trapped within fractured bone or swelling, it can prevent the eye from moving properly. The ringside doctor checks extraocular movements by having Ortega follow his finger to see if his eyes are moving correctly. It's important to check up and down movements to be specific for an inferior orbital fracture. The doctor also tests for pupil responsiveness to sudden stimuli and asks Ortega to count fingers to assess his vision. Despite the concerns, the doctors felt comfortable with Ortega continuing to fight. He didn't seem to sustain much more severe damage during the rest of the fight. Ortega will likely get a CT scan to evaluate for fractures, given the trauma he sustained. Hopefully, there is no fracture as it can permanently threaten vision depending on the severity. The purpose of the cheekbone is to protect the eye by protruding so that impacts hit the bone rather than directly hitting the eye. It's better for the bone to break than to have severe trauma and rupture of the eyeball. I hope the best for Ortega in his post-fight evaluations. He showed major toughness to keep fighting through all that trauma. Definitely seemed like a fight of the year candidate. Let me know any questions or comments you have down below. I hope this was educational to talk about the anatomy and concerns with orbital fractures based on what we saw with Ortega. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Raynor discusses the Brian Ortega vs. Yair Rodriguez fight, highlighting Ortega's shoulder injury. Ortega has had multiple shoulder surgeries due to recurrent dislocations. Dr. Raynor explains various treatment options for shoulder dislocations, from initial stabilization procedures to more complex surgeries like the Laterjet procedure and humeral head osteotomy. He speculates on Ortega's previous surgeries and potential future treatments, noting the limitations and challenges if standard procedures fail. If severe instability persists, options like shoulder fusion might be considered, though this would likely end Ortega's MMA career.

When you tear something, the guy goes in, cuts you open, stitches you back up, puts anchors, screws, or whatever. Then you have to heal from that and go to physical therapy two to three times a week until you hit the six-month mark. Once you hit the six-month mark, they say you can lightly do what you want to do for three months. Now we're at the nine-month mark, and it's like, all right, go into your world and play around with it, but don't mess it up.