He already had a stellar reputation…now you can add “internet maverick” to the list of glowing words used to describe Robert F. LaPrade M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of the Steadman Philippon Research Institute. On December 16, 2016, Dr. LaPrade opened up new orthopedic territory when he performed a live knee dissection on Facebook!
Robert LaPrade, M.D. Performs Knee Dissection on Facebook!
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Dr. LaPrade commented to OTW, “The Facebook Live broadcast was an unusual event that required a significant amount of planning. Pulling together a film crew, cadaver knee, etc., was pretty interesting, and resulted in a truly successful event. It required quite a bit of planning from our IT [information technology] team to ensure that we could provide a live feed. Obviously, the planning went well because the event went off without a hitch. In the first 24 hours the video garnered over 10, 000 views.”
“The clinical highlights were that we were able to review the anatomy of the anterolateral aspect of the knee in a very detailed fashion. This area has been difficult for many to understand and I believe that the live cadaver dissection helped demonstrate the location and function of these structures with immediate feedback from an audience that was able to ask questions and express their concerns.”
“Specifically, we reviewed the superficial bony and soft tissue landmarks of the knee, as well as the deep anatomy of the lateral aspect of the knee. In part, I decided to focus on the anterolateral aspect of the knee because it has received a lot of attention the last few years. Surprisingly, the anatomy of the iliotibial band was not previously characterized in detail. In this regard, we demonstrated two distinct deep fiber (Kaplan) attachments that could play a role in rotatory knee stability in conjunction to the ‘recently’ described anterolateral ligament. These findings should provide the foundation for the development of reconstruction or repair techniques to anatomically address these deficiencies in combined ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] and anterolateral knee injuries. ”
“I personally learned that there is a big audience for this type of event. We plan to do a similar event in the future on reviewing how to interpret knee MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scans for complex knee injuries.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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