Clinical Research - Current Projects

I. PATIENT SATISFACTION
As medicine becomes more patient-driven, patient satisfaction becomes even more important to measure. Assessing patient satisfaction is a major objective of follow-up data collection. Objective, condition-specific evaluations often fail to account for variations in patient satisfaction. It is our goal to determine what aspects of a patient’s overall outcome leads to a satisfactory experience.

Projects:

• Patient Satisfaction After ACL Reconstruction. Published in Journal of Bone Joint Surgery, 2002
• Patient Satisfaction After Rotator Cuff Surgery
• Patient Satisfaction After Microfracture of the Degenerative Knee
• Patient Satisfaction After Surgery for Shoulder Instability

II. OSTEOARTHRITIS
Arthritis will affect over 18 percent of all persons in the US in the year 2020. The various forms of arthritis currently affect more than 15% of the population (over 43 million) and more that 20% of the adult population.(Healthy People 2010) Arthritis is the leading cause of disability.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is among the most frequent and symptomatic medical problems for middle aged and older people. The number of people suffering from the disease is increasing as the average age of the population increases. Osteoarthritis has recently been listed at one of the top 10 most costly conditions in the United States, with an estimated annual cost of $16 billion and over 16 million adults in the United States affected in 1997.

Projects:

• Microfracture for OA of the knee
• High Tibial Osteotomies
• Arthroscopic Treatment package for OA of the knee
• Development of Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis in the Chronic Anterior Cruciate Ligament Deficient Knee
• Predictors of disability and decreased activity in patients with OA of the knee
• Prevalance of OA of the shoulder in patients with Instability
• Risk of OA in patients with instability of the shoulder
• Degree of Anterior Instability and OA in the shoulder
• Prevalance of OA of the shoulder in patient with rotator cuff pathology

III. INJURY TREATMENT TO MAINTAIN FUNCTION AND ACTIVITY

Projects:

• Microfracture
• Healing Response
• Meniscal Repair
• Treatment options for shoulder instability
• Predictors of success following Subacromial Decompression
• Clinical presentation and associated pathologies in patients with type III and IV SLAP lesions of the shoulder