VIDEO: Vascular Trauma in Knee Injuries

Grand Rounds at University of Washington. Discussing the importance of recognizing vascular injuries in the setting of knee trauma and the devastating limb-threatening consequences of missed vascular injuries.

Dr. Nels E. Sampatacos, surgery resident with UW Medicine, begins the lecture with a case study along with functional anatomy concepts.

Dr. Benjamin W. Starnes, chief of vascular surgery for UW Medicine, shares his personal military experience as a vascular surgeon, providing unique insight into front-line management protocols.

Dr. Christopher J. Wahl, assistant professor with the University of Washington, discusses orthopaedic perils and pitfalls, focusing on the radiographic findings suggestive of vascular injury in the setting of knee dislocation.

OATs | OCA: Osteoarticular Transplant | Osteochondral Allograft

When a patient has a large cartilage defect in the knee, our preferential treatment is an OATs (osteoarticular transplant) with allograft (donor bone).  This technique allows us to resurface a large defect and match the contour of the recipient site. We prefer this procedure over others (microfracture, ACI/Carticel, DeNovo, etc) because it restores the exact architecture of the native bone-cartilage interface (subchondral bone capped with mature, hyaline cartilage with viable chondrocytes). This defect required 2 plugs, which is often called a “snowman” technique.

1️⃣Open findings of the OCD (osteochondral defect).
2️⃣Arthroscopic findings of the OCD (osteochondral defect).
3️⃣Harvested donor "plug”; showing the bone-cartilage interface. 
4️⃣The plug is advanced until flush with the surrounding native cartilage.
5️⃣A second 20 mm donor plug is placed to fill the defect.
6️⃣“Profile” of the plugs matching the contour of the native femoral condyle.

How does patient activity level influences ACL graft choice?

In a room full of orthopaedic surgeons, you can’t throw a cat without hitting a few docs who have torn their ACL’s and never had them reconstructed.  Why?  Because a lot of orthopaedists don’t regularly participate in sports that involve rapid direction change, cutting, jumping, landing or pivoting; and if you don’t do those things, the likelihood that you’ll experience knee instability is low. 

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ACL Graft: Allograft

The allograft is the “Honda scooter of grafts” – It is easy to drive, you can park it anywhere, it’s dirt cheap with respect to graft pain, but they don’t work well to haul things or race, and there might be some reliability and safety issues.  You might not want it as your only vehicle.

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ACL Graft: Hamstring Autograft

ACL Graft: Hamstring Autograft

Hamstring autograft is the “4WD SUV of grafts” – It is reliable, it is flexible, it is a workhorse that works great for most people with few exceptions (from taking out the groceries all the way to tennis practice to the marathon).  It isn’t too ‘costly’ with respect to pain or arthritis, but high performance individual, elite athletes and folks exposed routinely to contact sports might be looking for a little more.

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Do I need to have ACL surgery?

Do I need to have ACL surgery?

Not everyone who has an ACL tear needs to have ACL surgery; so, before signing up for surgery to reconstruct your ACL, think about your activity level, current level of function and comfort, activity goals, etc and decide with your surgeon what the best treatment option is for you and your knee.

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