The Sports Medicine Center

LAOI sports medicine centerDon’t let a painful or debilitating sports injury keep you on the sidelines. The Sports Medicine Center at LAOI will restore you to peak performance with progressive surgical and non-surgical care.

Our Fellowship trained Sports Medicine specialists, Dominick J. Sisto, MD, Gregg R. Sobeck, MD, and Jonathan D. Botts, MD, are experts in caring for injured knees, shoulders, hips, and elbows with non-surgical treatment options tailored to each patient’s needs as well as minimally invasive, arthroscopic procedures that reduce pain, speed healing and improve outcomes.

We are the team orthopaedic surgeons for the Cal State Northridge Matadors and the only orthopaedic surgeons who operate on elite, scholarship Division I athletes in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACL)

Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most common surgical procedure performed at the Sports Medicine Center. We perform at least 200 ACL reconstructions a year – more than all local surgeons combined. In addition, our team is expert in meniscal repair and restoration. This cartilage-preserving procedure maintains the shock absorbing qualities of the knee and prevents degenerative arthritis later on.

The ACL is the main stabilizing ligament of the knee. Ligaments are like ropes which connect bone to bone and stabilize the joint. When the ACL tears, the two ends separate like a torn guitar string. The blood supply is disrupted and the ligament dissolves. The knee becomes unstable and the patient may experience significant swelling, loss of full range of motion, pain or tenderness along the joint line, and discomfort while walking.

The best procedure for the reconstruction of a torn ACL is Autogenous Patellar Tendon Reconstruction. The patient’s own patellar tendon offers the strongest graft choice for ACL reconstruction, due, in part, to the fact that the patellar tendon has bone on each end to enhance healing. Every professional athlete who has had ACL surgery (eg. running back Adrian Peterson, point guard Derrick Rose and quarterback Robert Griffin) has had an autogenous patellar tendon graft.

The Sports Medicine Center performs autogenous patellar tendon reconstruction exclusively, and routinely restores injured athletes to a high level of athletic performance.

Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair

People with rotator cuff tears find fast relief at the Sports Medicine Center with our groundbreaking Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair surgery. This minimally invasive procedure requires less cutting than traditional rotator cuff surgery and results in less pain, faster recovery, and a return to a higher level of athletic and shoulder functioning.

Shoulder Stabilization

The second most common surgical procedure performed at LAOI is stabilization of an unstable or “loose shoulder.” Stability of the shoulder joint depends on the:

  • Glenohumeral ligaments which are soft tissue structures that connect the ball and socket of the shoulder;
  • Labrum which is the cartilaginous shock absorber of the shoulder.

These two structures are torn when the shoulder subluxates (moves partially out of socket) or dislocates (moves completely out of socket).

At the Sports Medicine Center, the treatment for athletically active patients is to surgically repair the torn ligaments and labrum with arthroscopic surgical stabilization. This minimally invasive procedure uses tiny incisions and specially designed instruments to examine and repair the tissue inside or around the shoulder joint. Arthroscopic surgical stabilization avoids cutting muscle, minimizes post-surgical discomfort, improves outcomes, and allows all of our scholarship athletes to return to their pre-injury performance levels.

Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction (“Tommy John” surgery)

The Sports Medicine Center is one of a handful of Southern California centers to perform Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction (aka “Tommy John” surgery) on athletes’ pitching elbows. Named after the former major league pitcher on whom the procedure was first performed, the procedure has returned dozens of professional athletes to active play.

The Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) is the main stabilizing structure on the medial (inner) side of the elbow. When the ligament is torn, the pitcher can no longer throw a baseball without significant pain and instability.

In the 1970s, LA Dodgers team physician Frank Jobe, MD, was the surgical pioneer who invented the procedure to harvest the palmaris longus tendon from the forearm and reconstruct the UCL with it. The first pitcher on whom the surgery was performed was Tommy John, who returned to the Major Leagues following the procedure and pitched successfully for many subsequent seasons.

LAOI’s Domenick J. Sisto, MD, is one of the few orthopaedic surgeons in Southern California who spent an entire one-year Fellowship with Dr. Jobe learning how to perform this complicated procedure. He performs more “Tommy John” surgeries than any other surgeon in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys!

Sports Medicine Center Service to Athletes

The Sports Medicine Center’s success can be measured in its popularity among athletes at all levels. We proudly provide progressive orthopaedic care to professional, college, high school, and amateur athletes to help them stay active and healthy for life. Our record of achievement includes service to the following organizations:



 

Cal State Northridge orthopaedics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lancaster Jethawks orthopedics