Referrals from a primary care-based sports medicine department to an orthopaedic department: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Very few patients with musculoskeletal pathology were referred by a primary care-based sports medicine clinic to an orthopaedics clinic. Of the referred patients, sports medicine physicians and orthopaedists frequently agreed on the need for surgery. Expansion of a primary care-based sports medicine service could help relieve overburdened orthopaedics departments of patients with conditions not requiring surgery.