sports medicine Archives

Children’s National announces two new professorships

May 28, 2024

Drs. Oetgen and Kane join a distinguished group of Children’s National physicians and scientists who hold an endowed chair.

Children’s National Hospital named Matthew Evan Oetgen, M.D., as the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine. Dr. Oetgen serves as chief of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine.

Children’s National Hospital named Timothy Dennis Kane, M.D., as the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Professor of General and Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Kane serves as chief of General and Thoracic Surgery.

About the award

Drs. Oetgen and Kane join a distinguished group of Children’s National physicians and scientists who hold an endowed chair. Children’s National is grateful for its generous donors, who have funded 48 professorships to-date.

Professorships support groundbreaking work on behalf of children and their families. They foster new discoveries in pediatric medicine. These appointments carry prestige and honor that reflect the recipient’s achievements and donor’s forethought to advance and sustain knowledge.

Dr. Oetgen is a longstanding leader in orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine. Under his leadership, Children’s National opened the Fight For Children Sports Medicine Center in 2021. It provides a wide range of orthopaedic services to help young athletes function at their peak performance. Additionally, his team launched the nation’s first pediatric Spinal Fusion Surgical Home. This program led to significant decreases in average length of stay and patient pain scores for children with idiopathic scoliosis.

“We provide state-of-the-art care to young athletes across the region,” says Dr. Oetgen. “This professorship will help us continue the development of innovative clinical and research programs that streamline care for children with complex orthopaedic needs.”

Dr. Oetgen has authored more than 60 book chapters and publications. He has presented at many major national and international conferences in his field. Dr. Oetgen is also a key member of the multidisciplinary clinical trial team that was the first to apply magnetic resonance guided high-intensity focused ultrasound to non-invasively relieve osteoid osteoma tumors in children.

Dr. Kane works to develop the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Center for Surgical Care’s minimally invasive surgery program through clinical practice, instruction and research, while improving minimally invasive surgical techniques and speed into standard clinical care for pediatrics. He serves as principal investigator in the Minimally Invasive Therapy Program in the Bioengineering Initiative of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. He has specific interest and expertise in minimally invasive thoracic, gastrointestinal and neonatal surgery. Under his direction, the Division of General & Thoracic Surgery developed peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM), a newer technique to treat esophageal achalasia in children.

“Children’s National performs more POEM procedures than any other children’s hospital in the country,” says Dr. Kane. “I’m grateful for this professorship and look forward to making even more surgical advances in pediatric care.”

The Joseph E. Robert Jr. Trust, through their vision and generosity, are ensuring that Drs. Oetgen, Kane and future holders of these professorships will launch bold, new initiatives. These innovations will help rapidly elevate our leadership in the field of pediatric orthopaedic and general surgery and improve lifetimes for children.

About the donors

The Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Charitable Trust is a long-time champion of Children’s National. It honors the memory of the late Joseph “Joe” E. Robert, Jr. A native of Washington D.C., Joe was an entrepreneur and visionary who believed in the importance of investing in children through education and healthcare. His first gift to Children’s National created and endowed our Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Center for Surgical Care. He was also instrumental in shaping the vision and building support for the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National, created in 2009 with a $150 million gift from the Government of Abu Dhabi.

These professorships embody Joe’s legacy of inspiring others to think bigger and differently to advance pediatric healthcare for children of the Washington, D.C. community and beyond.

“Joe’s legacy is represented through the incredible work being done at Children’s National,” says David Fensterheim, board chair of Fight For Children. “Drs. Oetgen and Kane are trailblazers in pediatric healthcare. We are proud to honor them and their cutting-edge work with this prestigious professorship.”

Children’s National launches premier pediatric sports medicine center

February 7, 2022

The center houses orthopaedic surgeons, sports medicine physicians, physical therapists and imaging specialists and includes sports performance and injury prevention programs, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation and training gym and a motion capture lab for traditional 3D gait analysis and sports performance improvement.

The Fight For Children Sports Medicine Center at Children’s National is the first facility of its kind dedicated solely to young athletes in the Washington, D.C., region and serves as a one-stop shop for children’s athletic endeavors. The center houses orthopaedic surgeons, sports medicine physicians, physical therapists and imaging specialists and includes sports performance and injury prevention programs, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation and training gym and a motion capture lab for traditional 3D gait analysis and sports performance improvement.

“Children are not just small adults. They are their own entity and have concerns that are specific to them. We’ve developed the center in a way that focuses on young and adolescent athletes,” says Matthew Oetgen, M.D., M.B.A., division chief of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at Children’s National Hospital. “It’s not just about treating the injury — it’s about getting them rehabbed and instilling the confidence that they can get back and play sports again and that there’s not going to be another issue that we can’t solve together.”

Taking care of an athlete and improving their performance includes many steps and providers. The Fight For Children Sports Medicine Center offers integrated care that allows children to recover from injuries, improve their performance and prevent future injuries all under one roof. This makes the treatment plan more cohesive for the care team and more convenient for patients and families.

The Fight For Children’s Sports Medicine Center is now accepting patients in Silver Spring, MD. Visit our website to learn more.

Post-traumatic headache phenotype and recovery time after concussion

March 9, 2021

In a recent study published by JAMA Network Open, Gerard Gioia, Ph.D., division chief of Neuropsychology and director of Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery and Education (SCORE) Program at Children’s National Hospital, along with other leading researchers, described the characteristics of youth with post-traumatic headache (PTH) and determine whether the PTH phenotype is associated with outcome.

Concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) are common among children and adolescents and constitute a major public health challenge. While symptoms from a concussion typically resolve days to weeks after injury, 10% to 30% of patients have symptoms that last longer than four weeks, and a smaller proportion have symptoms that persist for much longer.

PTH is defined as significantly worsened head pain attributed to a blow or force to the head. Although adolescents have a higher risk for sustaining concussions and developing persistent symptoms than younger children or adults, there is little data regarding PTH recovery and treatment in youth.

Dr. Gioia founded the multicenter Four Corners Youth Consortium to fill the gap in our understanding of youth concussion and recovery. This study is the first analysis of PTH phenotype and prognosis in this cohort of concussed youth.

The researchers analyzed headache-related symptoms from a validated questionnaire developed by Dr. Gioia and his Children’s National concussion research team. The primary outcomes were time to recovery and concussion-attributable headache three months after injury while the secondary outcome was headache six months after injury. Recovery was defined as resolution of symptoms related to a concussion.

Future large studies validating the classification of posttraumatic headache phenotypes in youth and studying outcomes are essential. PTH phenotyping will improve prognostication of concussion recovery and will enhance the treatment for PTH with more appropriate and targeted therapies to treat and prevent persistent and disabling headaches in youth with a concussion.

2020 at a glance: Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at Children’s National

July 20, 2020

Osteochondritis dissecans: Deciding the best candidates for nonoperative treatment

December 6, 2018

“When patients come to see me with this condition, they’re often at their lowest point. But then I get to watch them go through this transformation as they’re getting better,” says Emily Niu, M.D. “It’s really wonderful to see someone’s personality blossom over the course of treatments.”

The adage of “practice makes perfect” is true for young competitive athletes; however it also puts them at risk for overuse injuries. One of these injuries is a condition called osteochondritis dissecans (OCD), in which repeatedly overloading joints causes increased stress to certain areas of bone. This area of bone can lose its blood supply, become unhealthy and ultimately end up fragmented. In the late stages, this area of bone can break off from the surrounding healthy bone and as a result, the overlying cartilage (which relies on the bone for a foundation) can become prone to damage. This process can be likened to the formation of potholes in a road. Typically, individuals affected can have pain, limited range of motion or even arthritis down the line.

This condition can happen at different locations throughout the body, including the knees, ankles and elbows. Baseball players and gymnasts are particularly prone to getting OCD of the capitellum, or the outside of the elbow, from throwing or tumbling.

If this injury is unstable, with bone and cartilage already fragmenting, it’s typically treated with surgery, explains Emily Niu, M.D., a Children’s National orthopaedic surgeon. Stabilizing the fragment and drilling tunnels in the affected bone surface allows new bone to grow and repair the defect. But for stable OCD, the treatment path is unclear.

Sometimes nonoperative treatments, such as rest, physical therapy or bracing the joint, can allow it to fully heal over time; however, she says, some patients treated nonoperatively may not be able to heal and will still require surgery later.

What distinguishes these two groups has thus far been unclear. Dr. Niu adds that there are few studies that have looked at what characteristics might make patients better candidates for a surgical or nonoperative route. The studies that do exist are limited to very small groups of patients.

To help doctors and their patients make more informed decisions, Dr. Niu and her colleagues performed a retrospective review of 89 patients aged 18 years old and younger treated at Boston Children’s Hospital for stable OCD of the capitellum. The vast majority of these 49 male and 40 female patients were baseball players and gymnasts. Most had just a single elbow affected; four patients (all gymnasts) experienced this problem in both elbows.

Each of these patients was initially treated nonoperatively, with activity restriction, physical therapy and progressive return to activity at the discretion of the treating physician. During this time, all of the athletes had elbow radiographs, elbow MRIs or both to image the injury and follow its healing process.

The researchers report in the November 2018 that just over half of these 93 elbows healed successfully with nonoperative treatments, taking an average of about eight months for symptoms to subside and imaging to show that the bone had healed properly.

When Dr. Niu and her colleagues looked for characteristics that might have influenced whether nonoperative treatments worked or didn’t, they didn’t find any difference in the two groups with age, bone maturity, sex, hand dominance or sport. However, the healing group had symptoms for an average of four months shorter than the non-healing group before they sought treatment. Those patients with bone lesions without clear margins visible on MRI were more likely to heal than those with clear margins, as were those without cyst-like lesions on their bones – both signs of a more advanced process. In addition, those whose bone lesions were relatively small were more likely to heal than those with larger lesions compared to the size of their bones.

Dr. Niu notes that OCD can be a devastating injury for young athletes, interrupting their participation in sports on average for a minimum of six months and significantly longer if nonoperative treatments fail and surgery becomes necessary. Being able to shave some time off that schedule with better knowledge of which type of treatment is most likely to work, she says, can help her patients get back to doing what they love significantly faster.

“When patients come to see me with this condition, they’re often at their lowest point. But then I get to watch them go through this transformation as they’re getting better,” Dr. Niu says. “It’s really wonderful to see someone’s personality blossom over the course of treatments. It’s such a relief for both of us when they’re back where they want to be.”

Children’s National orthopaedic surgery experts prepare for the 2018 POSNA annual meeting

February 20, 2018

The Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) will hold its 2018 annual meeting May 9-12, 2018 in Austin, TX. POSNA is dedicated to improving the care of children with musculoskeletal disorders through education, research and advocacy. Along with 1,400 othopeadic surgeons, physicians and other health care professionals, experts from Children’s National will attend and participate in the following activities:

Matthew Oetgen, M.D., M.B.A., Division Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, along with hospitalists Rita Fleming, M.D., and Anjna Melwani, M.D., will give a presentation on quality, safety and value titled, “Hospitalist co-management of pediatric orthopedic patients improves outcomes and quality processes.”
Danielle Putur, M.D., Miguel Pelton, M.D., Niharika Patel, M.P.H., and Emily Niu, M.D., will present a poster titled, “ACL growth with age in the skeletally immature: an MRI study.”
Benjamin Martin, M.D., will present a poster titled, “The effectiveness of intrathecal morphine compared to oral methadone for postoperative pain control after posterior spinal fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.”

Benjamin Martin, M.D., and Anjna Melwani, M.D., are among the experts from Children’s National who will be presenting at the POSNA annual meeting.

As a newly elected POSNA board member, Dr. Oetgen will also preside over the clinical award session, as well as chair the Spine Subspecialty Day, which is designed to update surgeons on current, cutting-edge topics and provide tips and tricks on a range of issues related to adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and moderate a discussion at this year’s meeting.

Additionally, Benjamin Martin, M.D., recently won the 2017 POSNA Clinical Trials Planning Grant – “The Treatment of Pediatric Diaphyseal Femur Fractures: A Clinical Trials Planning Grant.”

Visit the POSNA website to find out more information on this year’s conference.

The 38th Annual Telly Awards recognizes a Children’s National documentary

November 13, 2017

“I was very excited that our documentary was able to receive such an honor. We were able to successfully train 100% of D.C. Public School nurses, which makes all the difference when recognizing concussions in students and athletes,” says Shireen Atabaki, M.D., M.P.H.

The “Play Smart, Your Brain Matters” documentary was recently recognized at the 38^th Annual Telly Awards, which honors excellence in video and television across all screens. In light of the Athletic Concussion Protection Act of 2011, the documentary was created as a training tool for the Concussion Care and Evaluation Training Program, funded by the D.C. Department of Health and hosted by Children’s National Health System and MedStar Sports Medicine.

According to the Athletic Concussion Protection Act of 2011, athletic, school and medical personnel are required to receive the proper preparation and training in concussion recognition and response. All athletes suspected of sustaining a concussion are to be removed from practice or play and only allowed to return to sport participation after a written clearance is given by a licensed healthcare provider who is experienced in the evaluation and management of concussions.

Emergency Medicine Specialist, Shireen Atabaki, M.D., M.P.H., and expert in concussion and knowledge translations says, “I was very excited that our documentary was able to receive such an honor. We were able to successfully train 100% of D.C. Public School nurses, which makes all the difference when recognizing concussions in students and athletes.

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About the award

About the donors