Cutting
Edge Hip Center Opens at Saint
John’s |
By Jorge Casuso
October 18 -- When Robert
Wagner’s wife Jill St. John
shattered her hip during a skiing
accident two years ago, the philanthropic
actor called his friends at Saint
John’s Health Center.
Wagner, who hosts the hospital’s
annual Jimmy Stewart Marathon, was
referred to the one doctor sure to
put Jill’s hip, which had shattered
“like a tea cup,” back
together again, the actor said. His
name was Joel Matta.
“She was totally immobile,”
Wagner recalled. “Her hip was
shattered like a tea cup, and he put
it back piece by piece. Matta “brought
her back to life. She’s dancing,
walking around and she’s taking
care of me.”
 |
| (From
left) Administrative Specialist
Caren Black; Robert Klenck, M.D.;
Eleanor Ramirez, Saint John’s
executive VP and COO; Joel Matta,
M.D.; Robert Wagner; Sister Marie
Madeleine, chair of Saint John's
Legacy Project and Andrew Yun,
M.D. |
Last week, Wagner – who starred
in such television shows as It Takes
a Thief and Hart to Hart – joined
Matta, his team of surgeons and Saint
John’s officials to kick off
the hospital’s new Hip &
Pelvis Institute.
The new center, which weds the internationally
renowned surgeon’s expertise
with cutting edge technology, will
offer an array of techniques to retain
or replace hips that suffer from everything
from multiple fractures to congenital
deformities.
“I always felt I had a mission
in medicine and God gave me the skills
and knowledge to provide some things
to people,” Matta said during
the ribbon cutting ceremony last Wednesday.
“This is actually more anatomically
based,” Matta said. “We
start with young people whose hips
we can preserve to those who need
hip replacement. We have a wide range
of options for the patient.”
Matta is a leading proponent of the
“anterior approach” --
a frontal approach to the hip, rather
than a lateral or posterior approach
– which is widely used in Europe,
but far more rare in the U.S.
The anterior approach simplifies
and accelerates rehabilitation, reduces
the risk of dislocation, more accurately
controls the length of the leg and
uses a smaller incision that preserves
soft tissue, Matta said.
Matta -- who has performed more than
1,500 anterior approach hip replacements
--performed the surgery in a live
Internet web cast on October 9 using
a specialized surgical table, a hip
prosthesis and surgical instruments
he co-designed.
The protégé of Professor
Emile Letournel, who was the world's
foremost expert in the field, Matta
regularly teaches and has established
an exchange that will bring French
experts to the Santa Monica hospital.
Matta will be joined at the center
by Robert Klenck and Andrew Yun, two
highly regarded surgeons who specialize
in hip replacement.
“Everybody has really just
embraced us,” said Yun. “It
was a tough decision for all of us.
This was the bast place to take our
patients.”
Matta, said Klenck, “really
spurred my interest for procedures
others don’t want to even tackle
or try.”
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