Today’s episode is going to focus on revision ACL reconstruction – starting with the diagnostic workup of a patient with a suspected ACL retear as well as the surgical approach that follows, including graft choice, staging and the addition of other procedures such as LET and osteotomies. We are joined today by two outstanding guests! 

Dr. Mary Mulcahey is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine, Chief of Sports Medicine at Loyola University Medical Center and Deputy Editor for Sports Medicine at the Journal of bone and joint surgery.  She is also a team physician for Loyola University athletics and recently launched the new Women’s Sports Medicine program at Loyola Medicine.

Dr. Clayton Nuelle is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Missouri and Associate Editor for the Arthroscopy Journal.  He is a team physician from Mizzou athletics and the head team physician for Mizzou football, soccer, swimming, tennis and softball.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the Field House!

Today’s episode is going to focus on the level I clinical trials evaluating the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair or “BEAR”, including an update from the ongoing multicenter RCT – the BEAR-MOON trial! We are joined today by two outstanding guests! 

Dr. Brett Owens is a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Brown University Alpert Medical School, Chief of Sports Medicine at Miriam Hospital and the Director of the Rhode Island Cartilage Repair Center.  He is also a team physician for the Providence Bruins and Brown University athletics.

Dr. Kurt Spindler is a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Director of Clinical Research and Outcomes at the Cleveland Clinic in Florida and a past president of AOSSM. He has also served on numerous NFL committees including the Safety Council and the Research and Innovation Committee.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the Exhibit Hall!

On today’s episode we’re rebooting our most popular episode of all time which focuses on rehabilitation of ACL surgery with Candace Townley Cox, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and body movement expert at Evolution Physical Therapy. 

We’re going to continue our discussion with Candace Townley Cox and focus on rehabilitation of quad function and lower extremity mobility after surgery.
We start with a systematic review from the August 2022 issue of AJMS titled The Effects of Blood Flow Restriction in Patients Undergoing Knee Surgery. 

Now, we did a whole episode on blood flow restriction therapy or “BFR” with Dr. Eddie Chang back in October of 2021. If you haven’t already listened, go check it out! In brief, BFR involves the use of a cuff or tourniquet system positioned at the upper part of the limb to restrict venous blood return while maintaining arterial inflow. Restriction of venous outflow leads to an anaerobic – or oxygen depleted – environment similar to that of higher-intensity training. This anaerobic environment is hypothesized to promote muscle hypertrophy through a combination of cell signaling and hormonal changes, effectively leading to muscle mass and strength gains at lower intensity training – ideal for our post-op patients.

Lawrence Wengle and colleagues at the University of Toronto performed this review of 11 papers and concluded that the use of BFR led to significant improvements in quad muscle mass, quantified by cross-sectional area of the muscle, and quad strength after knee surgery. Patient reported outcomes were not significantly different between those who used BFR and those who did not. Lastly, in the two studies that used BFR pre-op, no significant benefit was found.

On today’s episode we’re rebooting our most popular episode of all time which focuses on rehabilitation of ACL surgery with Candace Townley Cox, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and body movement expert at Evolution Physical Therapy. Today’s discussion will center around tips and tricks to optimize outcomes and some common pitfalls that may hold patients back from a full recovery.

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We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on the surgical treatment of knee cartilage disease. As always, links to all of the papers that we discuss on this show can be found on our podcast website.

The first article is a level 3 case-control study published in the October 2020 issue of OJSM, titled Anterior Knee Pain After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. Gustavo Constantino de Campos and his team in Sao Paulo, Brazil retrospectively reviewed the records of 438 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction. Anterior knee pain was reported in 6.2% of cases. Patients who underwent ACL reconstruction with a patellar tendon autograft were 3.4 times more likely to experience anterior knee pain. Also, patients who experienced an extension deficit in the post-op period were also more likely to experience anterior knee pain, with an odds-ratio of 5.3. The authors fund that anterior knee pain was not correlated with patient sex, age or surgical technique.

We are joined today by Dr. Candace Townley Cox. Candace is a Colorado native who received her Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Following undergrad Candace returned to Colorado as a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer at Regis University in Denver. There, she earned her Master’s degree in Sports Performance while working specifically with the Women’s Volleyball and Softball teams. Candace continued her education at Regis University earning her Doctorate of Physical Therapy. Since graduating Candace has spent countless hours in Sport Science Labs assessing movement quality, efficiency, as well as bone and muscle performance. As a movement expert, she is able to address the body’s impairments both from a table assessment and from functional movement assessments.

We’ve been doing this podcast now for over 3 years and today we are giving you a refresh on one of our all-time, most popular episodes.

This episode answers the question we get asked all the time: What graft should I choose to reconstruct my ACL?

Please note that this episode is going to focus strictly on ACL reconstruction. For more information on ACL rehab check out our recent two-part episode with Candace Townley Cox back in April of 2023. We also have a few episodes on the BEAR ACL procedure - be sure to check those out as well!

Welcome to another episode of Ask The Sports Docs. We get a lot questions from our listeners each week and they’re great questions, so rather than responding individually we thought we’d do these mini episodes where highlight some of the best questions and our responses. So, let’s get started! Today’s Ask The Sports Docs focuses on everything you ever wanted to know about bracing.

We’re coming to you live from the Arthroscopy Association of North America's Annual Meeting in Boston, MA!  This year, orthopedic professionals gathered from all over the world at the AANA meeting to take part in an exciting educational line up. The educational program was comprised of instructional course lectures, podium presentations and panels, as well as topic debates.

Today, we’re going to be reviewing a few hot topics that arose from the meeting - live from the exhibit hall!

Welcome back to The Sports Docs Podcast!  In this episode, we’re going to continue our discussion with Dr. Bonnie Chien and focus on surgical treatment for Achilles tendon ruptures.

Our conversation picks back up with an article from the March 2023 issue of AJSM titled “Outcomes and Complications of Open Versus Minimally Invasive Repair of Acute Achilles Tendon Ruptures.” This Level I meta-analysis included 10 RCTs and found no difference in AOFAS scores and rate of total complications, re-ruptures, deep infections, skin necrosis, wound dehiscence, adhesions or keloid scars. But there were some significant differences between the groups.

Open repair was associated with significantly longer surgical time, higher risk of superficial infections and higher risk of ankle stiffness. Minimally invasive repair was associated with a higher rate of sural nerve injury, 3.4% compared to 0% in the open group.

Next up is a level I RCT from the June 2020 issue of AJSM titled “Comparison of Tendon Lengthening With Traditional Versus Accelerated Rehabilitation After Achilles Tendon Repair.” Patients were randomized to either a traditional rehab group with weightbearing at 6 weeks or an accelerated rehab group with graduated weightbearing starting at 2 weeks. All patients were found to have tendon lengthening after surgery with no significant differences found in overall lengthening between traditional and accelerated rehab groups. There were also no differences noted in ankle range of motion or outcome scores between the groups.

We finished up with an article from the October 2017 issue of AJSM titled “Professional Athletes’ Return to Play and Performance After Operative Repair of an Achilles Tendon Rupture.” This level III cohort study looked at return to play rates and performance among professional athletes after Achilles tendon repair in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. The authors found that 30% of athletes with an isolated Achilles rupture were unable to return to play at all after surgical repair. Those that were able to return to play had significantly less play time, less game played and played significantly worse compared to their pre-op performance levels. NBA players were most affected.

On today’s episode we’re focusing on Achilles tendon ruptures with Dr. Bonnie Chien. We have some great articles for you that contribute well to our conversation on the optimal management of Achilles tendon ruptures and the different surgical approaches. As always, links to all of the papers that we discuss on this show can be found on our podcast website – www.thesportsdocspod.com

We’ll start off our discussion today with an article from the April 2012 issue of CORR titled “MRI is Unnecessary for Diagnosing Acute Achilles Tendon Ruptures.” Yes, it is an oldie. But we do think it sparks an interesting discussion about the utility of MRI in the setting of a clear Achilles tendon rupture.

This study retrospectively compared 66 patients with acute Achilles ruptures and pre-op MRI with a control group of 66 patients without a pre-op MRI who were indicated for surgery by clinical diagnostic criteria alone.

Criteria was: (1) an abnormal Thompson test, (2) decreased resting tension and (3) a palpable defect. The authors found that these clinical findings were 100% sensitive for a complete Achilles rupture.

It took patients an average of 5 days to obtain the MRI after injury and 12 days for surgical intervention. In comparison, patients in the control group were taken for surgery at an average of 5.6 days after injury. No additional procedures were required in the control group compared to 19 patients in the MRI group.

The authors concluded that physical exam was more sensitive than MRI and that MRI is time-consuming, expensive and can lead to treatment delays which may be associated with a need for additional procedures at the time of surgery.

Then, from the April 2022 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, we review an article titled “Nonoperative or Surgical Treatment of Acute Achilles Tendon Rupture.” This multicenter randomized controlled trial compared nonoperative treatment, open repair, and minimally invasive repair in 554 patients with an acute Achilles tendon rupture. The authors concluded that that 12 months post-treatment, surgery was not associated with better outcomes than nonsurgical treatment. However, 11 patients in the nonoperative group sustained a re-rupture compared to 1 patient in the open repair group and 1 patient in the minimally invasive repair group.

We are joined today by Dr. Bonnie Chien, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and Assistant Professor at Columbia University who specializes in foot and ankle conditions. She received her medical degree from Stanford University and then completed her orthopedic residency at Harvard Medical School with Catherine and I. She then went on to complete a foot and ankle fellowship at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. 

Dr. Chien is passionate about global health and has traveled internationally to teach and perform foot and ankle surgeries. She is fluent in Chinese and English and speaks conversational Spanish. Dr. Chien has lectured extensively on the topic of Achilles, so we’re very excited to hear all that she has to share on this topic today.

Today we’re going to give you an update pertaining to one of our favorite topics – ACL. And honestly, it’s been a bit since we done an episode on ACL so we’re excited to dive into this new paper today and talk more about how it will impact our practice. We’re going to review an article from the January issue of AJSM year titled “Risk of Revision and Reoperation After Quadriceps Tendon Autograft ACL Reconstruction Compared with Patellar Tendon and Hamstring Autografts in a US Cohort of 21,973 Patients.”