The End of Sports Surgery

Abstract

While the ISAKOS congress always includes many technical papers about the minutiae of surgical techniques, and we strive to develop the procedures, which will lead to the best outcomes following sports injuries, these concerns pale into insignificance in relation to the looming possibility that the entire field may be wiped out in the foreseeable future, so that the sports surgeon may become extinct. What may cause such a catastrophe for the field? I believe, based on an increasing level of reports in the press, that routine surgery may become more hazardous with the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. It is being suggested that what are now routine surgeries such as joint replacement arthroplasty may cease because of the possibility of untreatable infections.