Ejnar Eriksson lecturer calls for more innovation in ACL reconstruction surgery

  • May 4, 2012

GENEVA —  Just as Ejnar Eriksson, MD, bid farewell in a final lecture in Stockholm in 1995, so too did John A. Feagin, MD, wish his colleagues goodbye in a lecture here at the European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy Congress 2012.

John A. Feagin, MD
John A. Feagin

Feagin described Eriksson’s vision for the European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA) and the American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and expressed some concerns about the direction in which ACL surgery is headed in his 20-minute presentation.

“I was privileged to be at his 1995 farewell lecture. It was brilliant,” Feagin, of Vail, Colo., USA, said of Eriksson. “An eponymous lecture is a great honor. Thank you, ESSKA, for this singular honor, especially so late in my career. So, like Ejnar, I think this is the lecture with which I would like to say farewell.”

He added, “I am ever grateful for our friendships and all we have shared.”

During his presentation, Feagin looked back over 40 years of ACL surgery and expressed his concern over whether orthopaedic surgeons have oversold ACL surgery to their patients. He cited an 85% success rate for ACL surgery in 2012 as an indication “we are not there yet.”

According Feagin, he thought at the beginning of his career that every patient needed a reconstruction procedure after they tore their ACL. “I have learned better than that now, but we have oversold it,” he said.

To further advance ACL surgery, surgeons should seek out industry relationships — even outside orthopaedics — to bridge the 15% gap in the success rates, just as Sir John Charnley did when he pioneered hip replacement in the 1950s, Feagin said.

orthomind

Among other concerns he said was the need for an updated International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) form, noting that in creating the original questionnaire form in 1987 he and the original IKDC omitted important tests like the pivot shift, which he said was not needed to indicate an ACL injury.

Reference:

  • Feagin J. Ejnar’s vision: The ESSKA — AOSSM legacy. Paper #IL15-4016. Presented at the European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy Congress 2012. May 2-5. Geneva.
  • Disclosure: Feagin has no relevant disclosures. 

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