Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I’m a current orthopedic surgery sports fellow at the University Of Kentucky and looks like no one has updated for University Of Kentucky orthopedic surgery sports medicine program in a while.
Overall structure: mentorship model with 3 four-month rotations.
Johnson(trained at Pitt)- 95% of this is a whole variety of complex knee experience, including quite a bit of multi lig knee experience (approximately 10 knee dislocations high energy, and another 10 lower energy surgical multilig knees during my four months with him). Tons of volume. He often runs two rooms with a range from meniscectomies to complicated cases. Certainly get to do enough PCL reconstruction and lateral knee work dissecting out peroneal nerve type of complexity to take away the mystery around the knee and build comfortability as a fellow. Tons of ACLs, meniscus repair. He trained with Dr. Fu, and seems like he absorbed all of the intensity and love for surgery/education from him. Great guy to work with, he’s intense, it’s super hard work, and I’m incredibly grateful for the experience. On this rotation, on Fridays, you also work with Duncan to do hip scopes. The nature of the program has quite a bit of flexibility here, so if you are interested in doing lots of this, you can, all that’s required is to meet certain number of cases so that the program stays at a reasonable ACGME percentile. I wasn’t particularly interested in hip scopes, so I didn’t do extra work here, but the program has the flexibility to allow you to get more experience here with this. My two cents are that hip scopes are technically difficult, and Duncan is super slick (if interested in having a significant hip arthroscopy niche). Johnson - Mondays and Wednesday office (busy clinics),Tuesdays and Thursdays OR. Fridays OR with Duncan or cover any other cases you want.
Mair (trained Steadman-Hawkins)/Sajadi (trained NYU Zuckerman) - shoulder rotation - overall this is an amazing rotation, I’ve been doing this for 3 months now. Mondays are with Sajadi. Normally he will have four or five shoulder arthroplasty on that day. He trained with Zuckerman. He is incredibly detailed in his knowledge and discussion of anatomy in a positive way. Autonomy is very good. Broad range of cases from anatomic, reverse, with and without navigation, revisions - great shoulder Arthroplasty exposure. He also does some pretty complex shoulder stuff so occasionally we’ll see Latarjet/Glenajet type cases with him. Tuesday through Friday are with Mair, Tuesdays and Thursdays Office, Wednesdays and Fridays OR. Clinics are busy. He takes time to educate/talk through decision-making process, which I think is really important in shoulder. Wednesdays and Fridays are typically three or four arthroscopy cases each day with him. Autonomy is excellent. It’s good volume and he’s a really good teacher with incredibly helpful and precise technical feedback to help you learn how to do shoulder arthroscopy. Good range from standard arthroscopic labrum and rotator cuff repairs to revision work. Like I said, current fellow, so I am 3 months into this rotation, and it has been great, Mair and Sajadi are great teachers.
Stone (Rush at trained)/Wilson(trained at Boston children’s Harvard) - I haven’t been on this rotation yet, but will explain the structure. Mondays and Wednesdays OR with Stone, Tuesdays and Fridays office with Stone. Thursdays OR with Wilson. Stones practice is more of a broad spectrum sports practice with majority shoulder and knee, but also elbow and ankle mixed in. He does quite a bit of cartilage work (OATS, allograft, ACI, etc.), he does shoulder arthroplasty also, so get exposure to that with him as well. Does lots of ACL, meniscus, patellofemoral, and shoulder scopes as well). Great to work with. He’s highly motivated with regard to research. Wilson does pediatric sports. Lots of great patellofemoral and pediatric ACL experience with him.
Overall: Phenomenal knee and shoulder experience, good sports coverage but not overwhelming, fantastic technical training, flexibility built into the schedule that allows you to focus on areas of interest (hip, peds, ankle, etc.).
Regarding sports coverage, fellows split up, covering University Of Kentucky, Eastern, Kentucky, and Georgetown. We covered a few high school football games and state high school tournaments for basketball and wrestling. Research staff and system are built already and independent of the fellows so you can essentially jump into what they have the machine already doing, and other than fulfilling ACGME requirements (participating in one project), the research requirement is flexible to my delight.
Location: Lexington is a great college town, horse and bourbon cultures are strong, good hiking nearby, I’ve enjoyed living here. Cost-of-living is low.
I’ve had an amazing experience here. Would come back to this fellowship in a heartbeat. Highly recommend.
