Santa Monica Orthopaedic Group Awarded FIFA Center of Excellence

Our practice was awarded the title of a FIFA Medical Center of Excellence. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is an association governed by Swiss law founded in 1904 and based in Zurich. They oversee one of the world's largest international sporting events, The World Cup. FIFA hopes to reach out and touch the world, using football(soccer) as a symbol of hope and integration.

Our practice was selected after demonstration of clinical education, research, and injury prevention. Other centers chosen include St Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan, The Adidas Sports Medicine Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, the Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Orthocentre of the Technical University, Munich.

There will be a ceremony at our facility Monday December 10th, 2007.
These designated centers are open to every soccer player looking for therapy or a second opinion on a specific injury.

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/developing/releases/newsid=653724.html

My Colleagues, Bert Mandelbaum MD & Michael Gerhardt MD are team physicians for the US National Soccer team.

We have used platelet rich plasma on professional soccer athletes to accelerate recovery.

http://prpinjection.blogspot.com/2007/10/cbs-news-with-katie-kouric-prp-feature.html

American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons New Article on Biologics

"Orthobiologics" or "biologics" are quickly becoming recognized amongst the sports medicine/orthopaedic community as one of the fastest growing industries with tremendous potential. Merging our understanding of how the body heals itself with cutting edge modern technology, we are developing exciting alternatives to standard care.

In the Sept 07 AAOS (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) Now Magazine, there was an article discussing this very subject matter. "Biologics in sports medicine: from BMPs to bone formation."

http://www.aaos.org/news/bulletin/sep07/clinical5.asp

The article describes this Field of "biologics" and cell based therapies to create new approaches to treating old injuries. Tems introduced include BMP (bone Morphogenic Protein and mesenchymal stem cells). These may be paramount to facilitating healing in various injuries including rotator cuff cuff tears in the shoulder and knee arthritis and meniscal tears. As the community of "babyboomers" and recreational ahletes grow, we are seeing younger patients with cartilage injuries that are too young (<60) years for knee replacements. Thus biologic solutions provide promise in this population base.

At my practice, Santa Monica Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Group we are beginning to treat patients with knee arthritis with a series of PRP injections. I have been corresponding with Physicians from Bologna Italy to learn from their early experiences as well. There is a link to their data on my blog. We are conducting outcome studies on the many patients we have injected for various injuries. Furthermore we hope to perform a knee arthritis PRP study in the near future. In general we are seeing tremendous outcomes in patients that have failed conservative treatments and were considering surgery or activity modification.

http://prpinjection.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-studies-on-platelet-rich-plasma-and.html

New Platelet Rich Plasma Article in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Now Magazine

As PRP use is increasing, we are seeing more articles surfacing discussing it's potential benefits. In a monthly publication for orthopaedists, the AAOS (Amer Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons) released an article titled "Clinical use of Platelet-rich plasma in orthopaedics."

http://www.aaos.org/news/bulletin/sep07/research2.asp

In general, the article familiarizes the reader with the science behind it's uses and advocates is use in soft tissue and wound repair, while cautioning it's application in bone grafting. Once again, further research is encouraged.

Platelet Rich Plasma Introduction

This blog site was created to establish a non-competitive forum for physicians performing PRP treatments & for patients interested in learning more about this emerging treatment. I was introduced to this treatment by my colleagues, Dr Bert Mandelbaum & Dr Michael Gerhardt; who are premiere orthopaedists responsible for treating numerous soccer athletes from all over the world. PRP is being used by many European professional soccer clubs, and is now making it's way to the U.S.

Initially we injected a few professional soccer athletes for MCL tears/sprains and noted accelerated recovery & earlier than expected return to play. Click link to see article:
http://www.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070417&content_id=89302&vkey=news_cdc&fext=.jsp&team=t120

Shortly afterwards we began treating weekend warriors with chronic non-healing tendon injuries including tennis/golfers elbow, achilles tendonosis, patellar tendonosis (jumpers knee). After a favorable response from patients and following discussions with other leaders in the community on PRP, we are now injecting PRP for other non-healing injuries including knee arthritis & hip bursitis.

PRP provides a safe and natural alternative to surgery using the body's natural ability to heal itself.