Here are five takeaways:
1. Bioengineering researcher Keith Markolf, PhD, bioengineer Daniel Boguszewski, PhD, and orthopedic surgeon David McAllister, MD, are using the robot to shed new light on how the knee works, how it gets injured and how best to repair it.
2. Its estimated that out knees absorb two to three times our body weight while we’re walking, and almost twice that during intense sports activities. Standing up to these forces on our knees is an undergirding of four small but strong bands of ligament tissue that strap together the large bones of our upper and lower legs.
3. In recent years, the UCLA researchers have been focusing much of their work on the ACL, the most important and most vulnerable of the knee ligaments. ACL injuries number approximately 200,000 every year in the United States, and females are six to 12 times more likely than males to tear their ACLs for reasons unknown.
4. With their robotic testing system, the UCLA researchers are able to simulate potential injury scenarios and directly measure forces in the ACL that can lead to rupture.
5. Dr. McAllister and his collaborators are applying their robot-powered research to scientifically determine which approaches to reconstruction used by surgeons around the world are actually working and which ones aren’t.
More articles on sports medicine:
Hospital for Special Surgery sponsors multi-sports series: 3 points
Orthopaedic Institute of Dayton, Kettering Health Network to open sports medicine facility: 3 takeaways
Dr. William Meyers performs hernia surgery on Iowa Hawkeyes’ C.J. Beathard: 4 things to know
