Anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in the new millennium: a global perspective.

Abstract

In May 2000 over 50 surgeons representing 18 different countries and 5 continents assembled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, for the Eighth Panther Sports Medicine Symposium. Entitled “From Robotics to Gene Therapy: Sports Medicine in the New Millennium,” the symposium focused on both current perspectives and new and emerging technologies in the field of orthopedic sports medicine. Topics covered ranged from cruciate ligament reconstruction and meniscal transplantation to future directions and outcomes measurements in orthopedic sports medicine. The symposium also offered the unique opportunity of obtaining “a global perspective” on the current approaches used around the world for various sports related injuries. Eight global panels were held to provide an international viewpoint on topics such as cruciate ligament and posterolateral corner reconstruction, the dislocated knee, osteotomies about the knee, and return to play following ACL reconstruction. For each topic, each panelist gave a 6-min presentation describing his or her practice setting and patient profile, current techniques or approaches, and clinical outcomes. A 20-min question and answer session was then held (Fig.1). Finally, the session moderator presented the panel “consensus” in which the results were summarized and tabulated. The feedback that we received in response to these panels from both conferKNEE Knee Surg, Sports Traumatol, Arthrosc (2001) 9 :330–336