Innovative surgeries offered by Dr. Chris Dougherty

Innovative surgeries offered by Dr. Chris Dougherty:

ACL Reconstruction on Children

Not many surgeons offer ACL reconstruction on very young kids, but Dr. Dougherty does. It’s an all epiphyseal ACL reconstruction and he is one of very few doctors to offer this treatment option in Arkansas. He also just returned lecturing on ligament reconstruction with internal bracing and cartilage grafting and is now performing anterior lateral ligament reconstructions.

Twenty years ago, very few children or adolescents presented at doctors’ offices with ACL injuries. Today, these injuries are common because children and young adolescents are participating in sports earlier in life and at a higher level of competition. Young athletes are also increasingly specializing in one sport, putting them at risk for overuse injuries once only seen in professional athletes. In addition, since the Title IX ban on sex discrimination in school sports, the number of female athletes has increased and females are more prone to ACL injury.

Performing ACL reconstruction in patients who are still growing is difficult. The ACL can be thought of as a rope that connects the thighbone to the shinbone. The rounded ends of the thighbone and shinbone are called epiphyses and the ACL dangles between them. Open growth plates are located directly behind the epiphyses in children and adolescents, but not in adults.

ACL reconstruction is difficult in children because if an adult-type reconstruction were performed, the graft would cross the growth plates, potentially causing damage that can result in uneven limb lengths or angular deformities. Thus, for many years, ACL injuries in children were managed with bracing, or surgical procedures that were not anatomic and required large incisions to avoid injuring the growth plate. In recent years, however, clinicians realized that non-operative treatment resulted in damage to menisci and articular cartilage thereby leading to early arthritis. Advances in technology, instrumentation and techniques are now available which allow surgeons to perform the reconstruction without risk of injury to the growth plate. These procedures are more technically demanding and are available only by a few surgeons across the U.S., including our very own Dr. Dougherty.

Dr. Dougherty uses a special technique in pre-pubescent patients that allows the ACL to be reconstructed without damaging the growth plate. This is called an all-epiphyseal ACL reconstruction. As opposed to treatment by prolonged bracing or surgery with potential uneven leg length, the all-epiphyseal ACL reconstruction allows the child to participate in sports and activities sooner and with significantly less complications. This technique really is a medical breakthrough for the orthopedic community and Dougherty Orthopedics is proud to be on the forefront of this movement into modern medicine.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sportsmeddr?feature=watch