Charles Cole Surgeon Promotes Advanced Orthopedic Surgery

Dr. Bradley Giannotti, orthopedic surgeon at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital’s Champion Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, spoke to a group of Army surgeons in Texas recently to promote more advanced surgical care for patients with shoulder injuries.

Dr. Giannotti educated the group on a new repair technique that can be done arthroscopically. Traditional surgery requires a two or three inch incision in the shoulder. Arthroscopic surgery uses a smaller incision and, while easier on the patient, was more difficult for surgeons in the past. Dr. Giannotti wanted to find a way to do the surgery in a way that would allow patients to heal faster while providing a secure fixation. After brainstorming some design samples and working with a group of bioengineers, Dr. Giannotti and two others co-founded the company, Kfx Medical, to stand for knotless fixation. Based in California, the product has been used in over 1,500 patients since FDA approval three years ago. In fact, Dr. Giannotti said the product is one of the strongest repairs available and uses the first patented crossed suture.

Surgeons in the United States perform over 400,000 rotator cuff repairs each year to repair damaged tendons in the shoulder, Dr. Giannotti said. With a more active population and the growing number of older Americans, that number could very well increase.

Dr. Giannotti has taught orthopedists across the country how to use the device and has also hosted visiting surgeons at Charles Cole. “Our goal has been to provide a tool for surgeons that makes the process faster and easier, while giving patients superior fixation of their rotator cuff tear without a bigger open procedure and so far I think we have accomplished that,” he said.

The company is preparing to launch a similar system which recently completed testing at the University of Toledo. Dr. Giannotti visited the university’s engineering department to test a new anchor for bicep tenodesis, a procedure for repairing a torn or diseased bicep where it originates at the shoulder. The knotless system would make surgery less invasive, requiring less rehab, he said.

The company looked at patients based on a common scoring system called the UCLA shoulder score (Dr. Giannotti’s alma mater) with excellent results. The earliest patients are about two and a half years out, he said.

“Any patient with a rotator cuff tear is a potential candidate as we have had collegiate athletes as well as middle aged and the elderly as patients,” he said. Dr. Giannotti wrote a scientific article for Techniques in Orthopaedics which will show the initial results of the product and will be published next year.

Dr. Giannotti has been a member of CCMH’s medical staff for over 12 years. He is an American College of Surgeons and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons fellow and is an associate master instructor for the Arthroscopy Association of North America. He also serves on Kfx Medical’s scientific advisory board. In addition to his orthopedic practice in Coudersport and Olean, NY, he also serves as a team physician for several area high school sports teams as well as St. Bonaventure University and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

(Photos courtesy of CCMH)