The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation announced this month that Robert F. LaPrade MD, PhD has been awarded the highly competitive and prestigious 2013 OREF Clinical Research Award for his submitted paper on “Improving Outcomes for Posterolateral Knee Injuries”. Dr. LaPrade will be presenting his winning paper at the Annual Meetings of the Orthopaedic Research Society and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 2013.
The posterolateral corner (PLC) of the knee is located on the outside of the knee joint and functions to stabilize the knee against direct or external forces. Most injuries that occur to this area are due to a sports impact, for example, football, soccer and/or basketball. Although injuries to this area of the knee represent a smaller percentage of cases compared to the ACL or MCL, the injury can create a devastating impact to athletic performance.
According to Dr. LaPrade, “This award solidly validates our research strategy of defining the anatomy, developing improved means of diagnosing a problem, redefining the clinically relevant biomechanics, developing improved radiographic diagnostic measures, developing biomechanically validated ligament reconstructions, and then validating these reconstructions in patient outcomes studies.”
In addition to the posterolateral knee for which this award was based, similar ongoing programs for the medial knee and MCL, anterior cruciate ligament, and posterior cruciate ligament are in currently in process.
Dr. LaPrade’s collaborators on this paper included Lars Engebretsen, MD, PHD (University of Oslo, Norway), Steinar Johansen, MD (University of Oslo), Chad Griffith, MD (University of Minnesota), Benjamin Coobs, MD (University of Minnesota) and Andrew Geeslin, MD (Western Michigan University).
