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A local student-athlete recently became the first Northside Hospital patient to have a new surgery for recurrent tears of a knee ligament. 

Dr. Mathew Pombo and his team from the Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute performed the surgery Dec. 17 at the Canton Place Outpatient Surgery Center.

Duluth High School senior Soriyah Charles was the patient after she tore her left anterior cruciate ligament for the fourth time.

Zoom out: The technique is developed by Newclip Technics and has been developed over the last few years to address one of the risk factors that can lead to recurrent tears of the ACL.

  • “It uses computer engineering models to evaluate the posterior slope of the tibia and we can more appropriately design and develop an individualized approach to surgery to correct the slope of the tibia through an osteotomy at the time of revision ACL surgery,” Dr. Pombo said.
  • Early techniques for ACL repair are not computer-engineered and rely on a surgeon’s naked eye to correct slope, Dr. Pombo said. This technology is specific to the patient.
  • “Historically, hardware from proximal tibial osteotomies made concomitant ACL surgery in some cases difficult to do at the same surgery, but by designing the surgery with computer templating and through patient-specific instrumentation, we can design a procedure specific to each patient and their anatomy to combine two surgeries into one,” Dr. Pombo said.

How it works: If a patient’s posterior tibial slope is more than 11-12 degrees, the procedure is an option to address one of the risk factors that contributed to the second — or further — tear, Dr. Pombo said.

  • Reducing the slope at the time of the revision ACL surgery eased the strain on Soriyah’s ACL graft, helping reduce her risk of future tears.
  • Dr. Pombo said he expects the procedure to become used more often as more data comes out and more surgeons are trained.

What’s next: Soriyah was on a light weight-bearing protocol three weeks after surgery. Patients need traditional physical therapy after the osteotomy heals.

  • “At four weeks post-surgery, I will gradually increase weight-bearing on my surgical leg by 25%, with plans to progressively incorporate more challenging exercises,” Soriyah said. Push-ups and core strengthening exercises are part of her recovery routine.

Learn more about the Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute.

 

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Dr. Mathew Pombo

Specialties: Orthopedic Surgery

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Dr. Mathew Pombo is the director of Northside Hospital’s Soccer Medicine Program and is considered one of the leading experts on youth and adult sports injuries, surgery of the shoulder and knee, sports medicine and the aging athlete, and is well known as a national/international leader in the field of soccer medicine.

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