ANDRE W WICKlINE, MD,
IS R AISING THE BAR
ON TOTAl KNEE AND
HIP REPl ACEMENTS
WITH GAME-CHANGING
PROTOCOlS THAT MINIMIZE
THE NEED FOR PAIN
MEDICATIONS WHIlE
MA XIMIZING RESUlTS.
TOTAL KNEE AND total hip replacements
typically lead to painful recovery periods
f illed with diff icult physica l therapy
sessions. Not only does this deter some
patients from getting a procedure that can
vastly improve their quality of life, but it
also raises the risk of patients developing
an opioid dependency after surgery.
Andrew Wickline, MD, an orthopedic
joint replacement specia list at Genesee
Orthopedics & Plastic Surgery in New
Ha r tford, located about 50 miles east
of Syracuse, has proven this troubling
trend doesn't have to continue. A f ter
developing Therapy-Free Tota l Knee
Replacement, a program that virtua lly
el i m i nat es t he need for t ra d it iona l
phy s ic a l t her a p y fol low i n g a joi nt
replacement, Dr. Wick line published
the lowest opioid use rates in the country
for this t y pe of procedure, with high
patient satisfaction and positive long-
term outcomes.
His groundbrea king protocols have
a lso led to the lowest patient costs and
the lowest complication rate in the state
of New York, even among patients with
a high number of comorbidities.
RESPONDING TO PATIENT NEEDS
"At the end of the day, a huge part of a doc-
tor's job is customer service," Dr. Wickline
says. "I asked my patients, what can I
do better? The answers made me think
about why we do such aggressive phys-
ica l therapy after joint replacements,
and if there could be a better way. That
was the inspiration for developing my
therapy-free program."
Many patients told Dr. Wickline that
t he joint replacement surger y itself
wasn't a bad experience, but the physical
therapy prescribed during recovery was
nearly unbearable, especially for total
knee replacements.
"I heard things like, 'I hate therapy. It
was absolutely terrible.' Or 'My mom won't
go back to do the other knee because she
doesn't want to go through therapy again,'"
Dr. Wickline says. "I started looking at
what we could do differently."
Accelerated Recovery Without
Opioid Risks: How New York Surgeon
Andrew Wickline Reinvented the Joint
Replacement Experience
BY ELESA SWIRGSDIN
Andrew Wickline, MD, Nicole Urbanke, RN, Jodi Pearsall, RN, Kristin Thayer, ST, Stevana Hanna, ST, Dana Siriano, RN, Paul Crescenzi, CRNA
0 6 ❱❱❱❱❱ C O V E R F E A T U R E
