On this episode of the Healthy Wealthy and Smart Podcast, Dr. Evangelos Pappas joins the show to discuss the editorial in the Sports Medicine Journal, Time for a Different Approach to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries: Educate and Create Realistic Expectations. Dr. Evangelos Pappas' research interests are in the areas of sports medicine, biomechanics and musculoskeletal physiotherapy. Specifically, his interests are in the areas of etiology of lower extremity sports injuries, effectiveness of injury prevention programs, motor control re-training for the prevention and treatment of knee pathologies, epidemiology of ACL injuries, rehabilitation of lower extremity injuries, and dance medicine

In this episode, we discuss:

-How patients interpret the practitioner's language and use of medical terminology surrounding ACL injury

-Strategies to communicate the medical management of ACL injury to set realistic patient expectations

-The limitations of the research in determining who will benefit from surgical versus conservative treatment for ACL injury

-Physical therapy utilization and patient outcomes

-And so much more!

"We have identified a big discrepancy between the expectations of the patient and the research and the outcomes that we know are produced after conservative or surgical treatment."

"It is very frequently a life defining moment."

"We do fail to communicate accurate information to our patients."

"It is really risky to advocate to all patients conservative treatment including those who want to return to high level pivoting sports."

"We don't have good data to know who's going to do well with conservative management at this point."

For more information on Dr. Pappas:

Professor Evangelos Pappas trained as a physiotherapist in Thessaloniki, Greece before pursuing a Masters in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy at Quinnipiac University and a PhD in Orthopaedic Biomechanics at New York University in the USA. Prior to coming to the University of Sydney, He taught for 11 years at Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus in kinesiology, clinical decision making and musculoskeletal pathology and physiotherapy. His excellence in teaching was recognized by his nomination for the Newton award for excellence in teaching. A/Professor Pappas joined the University of Sydney as a Senior Lecturer in 2013 where he continues to lecture in the areas of musculoskeletal physiotherapy, and particularly as it relates to the upper and lower extremities.

Professor Pappas is also active in musculoskeletal research. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and intramural grants. He has presented his work in more than 50 national and international conferences and he has been interviewed on the radio as an expert on knee injuries. His publications appear in top journals in the fields of physiotherapy, sports medicine and biomechanics. One of his publications received the T. David Sisk award for best review paper from Sports Health; a leading multidisciplinary journal in sports medicine. In addition, Professor Pappas has served on the research subcommittee of the awards committee of the American Physical Therapy Association.

Resources discussed on this show:

Zadro, J.R. & Pappas, E. (2018). Time for a Different Approach to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries: Educate and Create Realistic Expectations. Sports Med. doi: 10.1007/s40279-018-0995-0. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30284693

Episode 227: Dr. Evangelos Pappas: ACL Rehab & Research 101

Episode 048: Physical Therapist Dr. Evangelos Pappas

Evangelos Pappas Twitter

Evangelos Pappas Facebook

Email: [email protected]

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Xo Karen