Richard Lehman (surgeon)
Richard Lehman, M.D. is an orthopedic surgeon in St. Louis, Missouri, who performs arthroscopic joint reconstruction and surgery, hardware removal, knee arthroscopy, knee debridement and shaving, ligament reconstruction, meniscectomy, rotator cuff repair and Superior Labral Anterior Posterior (SLAP) repair.
Since the early 1990s, Dr. Lehman has been a central figure in sports injury protocol and surgical procedures. He's pioneered several arthropedic surgeries that are designed to minimize scarring and lower re-injury chances.
Throughout his career, Dr. Lehman has written extensively. He's penned over twenty-seven articles in science journals like Arthroscopy. During the 1980s he authored And Co-authored clinics in sports medicine and guidelines on how to sports teams can avoid injuries.
Dr. Richard Lehman grew up in Miami, Fl.
Education
Dr. Lehman completed his training at Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1986, he completed a sports medicine fellowship.
During his medical education, Dr. Lehman received eight educational honors. Two are worth mentioning. The Lake Tahoe Orthopedic Institute selected Dr. Lehman in 1983 for a fellowship. And in 1986 he received the Eastern Orthopedic Cervical Spine Institute Award.
According to HealthGrades, a consumer-driven website devoted to grading American physicians, Dr. Lehman served residencies at Barnes Jewish Hospital, University of Pennsylvania Health System and Washington University Affiliated Hospitals.
Professional Achievements
In conjunction with Biomet, Dr. Lehman revolutionized cartilage regeneration techniques to further growth and reconstruction of articular cartilage. He's also written and lectured extensively on the subject.
Dr. Lehman has written three books on tennis injuries and published extensively in orthopedic literature and sports medicine journals.
In Racquet Sports: Injury Treatment and Prevention, Dr. Lehman created guidelines to help decrease the rehabilitation protocol and decrease the reinjury rate in tennis players. For the rehabilitation of the athlete with an injured shoulder, wrist or hand he recommended the appropriate size of a racquet, string tension, string type, grip size and tennis ball type. He included a graduated rehabilitation plan that cascaded from structured practice to structured matches.
Part of Dr. Lehman's motivation to provide such guidelines was due to the fact that open shoulder surgery at the time offered an unacceptably low rate of successful return to preinjury levels. Thus, he championed a uniformly successful regimen and a prophylactic program to decrease the number of injured athletes.
In 2005, Dr. Lehman recommended a new fixation technique for lateral elbow reconstruction. This technique is described In Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery. The diagnosis of posterolateral rotatory instability of the elbow is difficult, but is more common than elbow dislocations. Pinpointing this diagnosis, Lehman says, is subtle, depending on patient complaints of a significant pop in the elbow.
Treatment of this problem starts with physical therapy, diminishment of activity and aggressive strengthing. When the recurrent instability occurs and symptoms are not resolved, treatment is surgical. Dr. Lehman's technique uses interference fit screws instead of bone tunnels. The technique utilizes a standard free graft and the isometric points on the lateral epicondylar ride and ulna are identified, all improvements to the original procedure. Furthermore, fixation is completed after the isometricity of the insertion site is ensured and the graft is appropirately tensioned. This procedure is an upgrade because there is much less trauma to the elbow, the fixation is stronger and scarring is minimized with this technique.
In 2003, Dr. Lehman recommended an all-arthroscopic procedure for partial rotator cuff tears, an area of arthroscopic surgery, including partial rotator cuff tear treatment and natural history, that was in a constant state of change. His recommendation centered around the idea that tears in the rotator cuff should be treated surgically when the cuff was torn more than 50% of the thickness or when substantial thinning of the rotator cuff is identified. Surgically treating partial rotator cuff tears, Lehman contended, would help protect and limit further breakdown, but, more importantly, addresses the need for increased blood supply in the rotator cuff and diminishes the chance for full rotator cuff tear.
However, even with the introduction of new arthroscopic techniques like Dr. Lehman's, there is still no standard treatment protocol for partial-thickness rotator cuff tears.
Also in 2003, Dr. Lehman recommended a procedure to treat articular cartilage full-thickness lesions. This procedure was a modification of the medical procedures microfracture and autologous autograft transplantation, two surgeries with shortcomings in terms of difficulty, expense, surgical morbidity and availability of grafting material.
Career
Dr. Lehman is licensed in Missouri and California and actively treats track and field athletes worldwide and professional sports athletes from North America. He focuses on rehabilitation of knee, shoulder and elbow injuries.
In Missouri, he's been appointed to Des Peres Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital of Kirkwood and Webster Surgical Center.
Dr. Lehman is currently on the Board of Directors of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Foundation, the medical director of Webster Surgery Center and the medical director of the U.S. Center for Sports Medicine. He is on the Board of Governors for the National Hockey League and is on the St. Louis Sports Commission. His practice encompasses taking care of professional athletes at all levels and all sports, as well as Division college athletes.
He is currently a part owner of the National Hockey League Tampa Bay Panthers. He's been the team physician for the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightening and St. Louis Blues. He has been a consulting physician for UCLA Track & Field and has covered four Olympic Games, as well as seven Track and Field World Championships.
Academic Assignments
In 1989, Dr. Lehman served on the Orthopedic Peer Review Committee of the Prudential Insurance Company of America.
While at Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Lehman served as research assistant professor for the Physical Therapy and Irene Walter Johnson Institute of Rehabilitation. He kept this post from 1986 to 1992.
In 1984 and 1985, Dr. Lehman acted as Chief Instructor over the Orthopedic Curriculum at Washington University School of Physical Therapy and Irene Johnson Institute of Rehabilitation.