LYNNE JETER

Emilio Lopez-Vidrierro, MD, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and James Tasto, MD, of San Diego, Calif., during the wet lab demonstrations at MSMOC.

Hitting the Mark

The Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) recently selected Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center (MSMOC) as an elite participant for its prestigious Arthroscopy Traveling Fellowship Program. 

The Traveling Fellowship Program consists of three AANA physicians, who during a 4-week period visit five sites noted for superior arthroscopic surgery throughout North America. The 2010 program agenda included stops in Vail, Colo., Los Angeles, New York City and Jackson, Miss., before ending at the AANA Annual Meeting in Hollywood, Fla.

“To be one of five North American sites selected for the program is a tremendous honor and validation for both our fellowship program and our practice,” said Larry D. Field, MD, MSMOC’s Sports Medicine Fellowship Director. “The AANA visiting surgeons had the opportunity to observe the work of leading surgeons in their fields here at MSMOC, which speaks volumes for the reputation of our program and what we strive to accomplish here.”

Visiting AANA physicians were Christopher R. Chuinard, MD, of Traverse City, Mich., Emilio Lopez-Vidrierro, MD, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and James Tasto, MD, of San Diego, Calif.

The national program dovetails with MSMOC’s own Sports Medicine Fellowship Program, a 12-month fellowship that trains five orthopedic surgeons annually and is balanced between upper extremity and lower extremity rotations. Specifically, Gene Barrett, Walter Shelton, and Jay O’Mara, MDs, serve as lower extremity rotation instructors, while Larry Field, Randy Ramsey and Rhett Hobgood, MDs, serve as upper extremity rotation instructors. Each fellow spends valuable clinic and surgical rotation time with each of these surgeons throughout their respective year of training. 

For the AANA program, the 5-day agenda in late spring at MSMOC opened with the fellows viewing arthroscopic shoulder surgeries with Field and arthroscopic knee surgeries with Shelton, followed by a formal discussion led by Tasto concerning the use of radiofrequency in the treatment of chronic tendiosis, who also highlighted basic science and clinical results.

The second day began with lab demonstrations on arthroscopic shoulder procedures with Ramsey, a knee ACL reconstruction with Shelton, various arthroscopic elbow surgical procedures with Field, and elbow MCL reconstruction with Hobgood.

Afternoon presentations included Chuinard discussing the incidence of subscapularis tears in a community practice, Lopez-Vidrierro talking about platelet rich plasma applications in arthroscopy and sports medicine, and Tasto providing an ankle arthroscopy 2010 update.

Also on the afternoon agenda, MSMOC Fellows:

Mark Zunkiewicz, MD, compared short-term functional outcomes in patients undergoing revision arthroscopic repair of massive rotator cuff tears with and without arthroscopic suprascapular nerve release.

Jeffrey Yaste, MD, talked about elbow ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction using hamstring allograft in young throwing athletes.

Jessica Bilotta, MD, discussed double-bundle posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with quadriceps tendon-patellar bone autograft.

Bryan Fagan, MD, talked about primary arthritis of the elbow and whether arthroscopic ulnohumeral arthrosplasty results in improved outcomes compared to arthroscopic debridement.

Kristofer Kimber, MD, discussed hamstring anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction by comparing combined aperture and peripheral fixation with peripheral fixation alone. 

The program concluded with a dinner on the final evening, giving all participants the opportunity to deepen their relationships with one another in a more social environment.  

“Obviously,” said Shelton, “the primary objective of AANA’s Traveling Fellow Program is to foster learning and professional advancement, but it also presents an ideal opportunity for us to build lasting friendships with our peers from around the world.”