“We want the reader to know the current state of the art so they have the tools to evaluate future advances.” – Frank Noyes, MD
I fell in love with the knee joint when I finished my residency at the University of Michigan. At the time, we were looking at areas of science and biomechanics that had really not yet been addressed. I was very fortunate to have a four-year stint in the Air Force at the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories in Dayton, Ohio. The Air Force had a problem with knee injuries and lower-extremity injuries and we were able to use some of the most sophisticated bioengineering in the world, as applied to the knee joint. That’s where we put together our research team and moved to the University of Cincinnati, which has a very active College of Engineering, and where we started one of the first biomechanics and bioengineering schools in the country. Thirty years later, it has grown to a five-year program that has forty to fifty students per year at the Master’s and Ph.D. levels. We then started Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center as an institute totally devoted to sports medicine.
One of the most important subjects in Knee Disorders is rehabilitation. Residents are not taught the fine points of rehabilitation that knee surgeons need to perform. We included all the protocols for rehabilitation and every chapter of the book finishes with what the surgeon needs to know to get a good result through rehab. For example, for ligament surgery the type of surgery you select has to have sufficient strength so that you can move that knee immediately. You never use casts and it’s very aggressive rehabilitation with immediate motion concepts that are so important.
The book also includes very specific operative procedures — which indications for which procedures work, as well as those that do not work. You’ll see that each chapter has a strong emphasis on the science. We also give the results of many hundreds of studies in tables and discussion. We tell you where we are in terms of research, and that sometimes we don’t have the answer. We’re very honest. We try not to be pompous and say, “This is the way it has to be done.” We want the reader to know the current state of the art so they have the tools to evaluate future advances.
The first two chapters of Noyes’ Knee Disorders have what I think is one of the finest presentations of knee anatomy that exists in any publication. We took all of the knee anatomy textbooks—the Sobota and Cunningham anatomies—and we looked at the structure and nomenclature. We then took cadavers and dissected out the little parts, of which we have excellent photographs. We also have an illustrator, Joe Chovan, who is also the illustrator for Gray’s Anatomy. I think he produced some of the finest illustrations for knee anatomy anywhere.
Frank R. Noyes, MD is an internationally-renowned knee surgeon and orthopaedic sports medicine specialist. He is chairman and medical director of Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center, president of the Cincinnati Sports Medicine Research and Education Foundation, a clinical professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and an adjunct professor in the Noyes Tissue Engineering and Biomechanics Laboratory at the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering.
Dr. Noyes’ research has contributed to many breakthroughs in the treatment of complex knee problems, and has led to the development of the only scientifically proven training program that decreases the incidence of serious knee ligament injuries in young female athletes. He is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, and is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Orthopaedic Association, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and the International Society of the Knee, among many others. Dr. Noyes is a recipient of one of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s highest award, the OREF Clinical Research Award, the John Kennedy Memorial Lectureship, the George D. Rovere Award of Excellence, and the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s Excellence in Research Award. Dr Noyes is the author of Noyes’ Knee Disorders: Surgery, Rehabilitation, Clinical Outcomes.
