Traveling Fellow Elvire Servien Visits US and South Africa for Further Study
As part of her traveling fellowship, Elvire Servien of Lyon, France visited three different surgeons in two countries on two different continents. Her report is provided below:
In June of 2009, I went to the United States to meet Dr. John Fulkerson of Farmington, CT and Dr. Anthony Schepsis of Boston, MA. I saw different surgeries, including and MPFL procedure and Dr. Fulkerson’s osteotomy. But I also saw many patella-disorders I usually do not see in my practice. Indeed, when experiencing anterior knee pain in France, patients are referred to the physician for a rehabilitation protocol. We went to the lab with Dr. Fulkerson with his fellow and did an MPFL knee dissection on a cadaver. I also saw several antero-medialization osteotomies with a repeat of the anteromedial tibial tubercle transfer with Dr. Schepsis. The second interesting point was a very high rate of patients with previous lateral retinaculum release (two or three recurrent procedures) coming to see a “patella surgeon expert.” With Professor Schepsis, the dynamic CT-scan was a very interesting exam and was performed in order to analyze patello-femoral tracking during flexion.
My second destination was South Africa , where I visited Dr. Spike Erasmus. I saw his technique for MPFL reconstruction and had an extensive discussion with him about MPFL isometry and graft fixation. The fellowship ended with an International PF Study Group meeting and fantastic Sabi Sabi
