Welcome
Specialties
Anatomical
Knee
Treatment
Arthroscopic Surgery, Sports Medicine
My approach to treating patients
I am an orthopedic surgeon with specialized training in sports medicine. I have been in practice since 1997. My training consisted of ten years of work after college with four years of medical school, five years of residency and one year of specialized training in sports medicine. I provide and supervise operative as well as nonoperative care.
I started out in practice at Kaiser Permanente in Portland and was the chief of orthopedic surgery for the Kaiser Northwest region (Oregon and Southwest Washington) for approximately 2 years until I left Kaiser to join the Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic in private practice in 2002 where I worked for 5 years before joining the Portland Clinic to start a sports medicine program.
I was rated one of the top doctors in Portland Monthly for sports medicine in 2008, and am the team doctor for Lewis and Clark College as well as Sunset High School.
My practice includes a broad range of orthopedic problems but is focused on knee ligament and meniscus injuries which make up more than half of my practice.
I believe in a team approach. The most important member of the team is you. You are the one who decides whether or not the process has been successful and you are also the one who will end up having to do the most in order to recover. Other members of the team are myself, physical therapists, athletic trainers, radiologists, surgical personnel and my medical assistants. As with any complex process, all of us need to do our part to have the process go smoothly and predictably. The ultimate goal is to get you back to the level of activity and function you are used to while minimizing the risks of treatment.
The beginning of the process is when you come in for your first office visit. We will ask you about your injury and what has happened since the injury. We will need to know about any medical problems you may have and any medications you take or cannot take. We also need to know what your expectations are.
The next step is to establish the diagnosis. This will almost always involve getting a set of x rays. MRI scans and other studies are often also done. After we know what the problem is we can develop a plan for treatment.
I believe that the decision regarding what treatment is best for you is up to you. I will present the various options for treatment to you along with my assessment of the likelihood of success as well as the risks associated with each of the various options. For nonoperative treatment the risk is usually the risk of failure to cure the problem. For surgery there are many additional risks. Conservative treatment is the treatment that has the highest probability of success with the lowest risk. Nonsurgical treatment may be the initial treatment and surgery may be selected if other methods are not successful. Most of the people who see me recover without surgery. Sometimes surgical treatment is the most conservative treatment.
I believe that the key to happiness in recovery from an injury or medical problem is to have realistic expectations. I will do my best to explain the situation and what to expect.
Contact Information
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