News

Inside scoop on Tiger's knee

June 27, 2008

For those of you who have written to us about Tiger's knee, you'll be interested a piece by John Lauerman on Bloomberg.com today. Lauerman gets orthopedic surgeons to talk about Tiger's surgery and about the surgeon who did it. It turns out that Dr. Thomas Rosenberg, an innovative surgeon and an avid golfer himself, takes a significantly different approach to ACL surgery than most and probably took that approach with Woods:

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While the doctor isn't saying what technique he used on Woods, Rosenberg is an early developer of the ``double-bundle'' reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL.

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Most surgeons repair a damaged ACL, which Woods tore, with a single strand of tendon tissue, usually taken from the patient's knee or from a cadaver. Rosenberg pioneered replacing both of the two parts of the ACL. Some specialists believe it may preserve the finely tuned ``screw'' action of the knee as it hinges, said John Richmond, chairman of orthopedics at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston.

[object Object]The perceived advantage of double-bundle surgery is that it restores a more normal motion.''

Worth a read.

--Bob Carney