You’re an established expert on knee injuries. What does your ward at the Sonnenhof clinic in Bern offer?
We have seven highly specialised teams for orthopaedic surgery, focusing on feet, knees, hips, the spine, upper limbs, hands and paediatrics. I co-founded the Sonnenhof orthopaedic clinic and work as Head of Knee Surgery, which includes sports injuries.
How did you come to be such an expert on knee surgery?
Specialisation has progressed at an incredible pace in recent years. Originally, I was a hip surgeon and practised in New York, Paris and Berlin, for example. When I returned to the University Hospital of Bern, the person in charge of knee surgery vacated the position. I took over the role and enjoyed it because I like innovation, and there was a greater need for developments in knee surgery than in hip surgery.
What do you do differently, compared to others?
I’m just like everyone else – I put my trousers on one leg at a time (grins). Practice makes perfect though. We operate very differently today than we did 5, 10 or 15 years ago. New approaches are constantly emerging. If you do 10 or 20 knee operations a year, it’s going to be harder than if you perform over 1,000 operations, like our team does. We’re also heavily involved in training, so I often assist. I perform around 300 operations a year from start to finish: mainly complex and unclear cases.
Who comes to see you?
Knee injuries often affect physically active people aged between 20 and 50. On a Monday morning in January or February, I’ll see 10 to 20 skiers with cruciate ligament tears. Knees are very fragile. Enormous forces are often exerted on the anterior cruciate ligament. Top athletes usually undergo surgery straight away. Otherwise, we often wait a few months before deciding whether an operation is necessary.
Sonnenhof offers Visana customers second opinions on knee surgery. How important are second opinions?
I’ve always been a firm believer in them. There are complicated situations where it helps to get advice from other doctors. Financial considerations are often decisive too: Patients, doctors and insurers can have different expectations.
Do doctors often disagree on how to proceed?
No. Second opinions provide quality control. And what’s really important is that the doctor providing the second opinion must not be the one providing the treatment, otherwise their judgement is compromised. I’ve seen so many knees that I can form a clear picture relatively quickly and give an expert opinion. But there will be more operations in the future because people are living longer and longer. On average, we now live 10 years longer than we did 40 years ago.
Can you offer any tips on how to look after your knees?
A good healthy musculoskeletal system needs strong muscles. The older we get, the more we need to stabilise and build up our muscles. They protect the joints and help to prevent injuries. Press-ups are the mother of all exercises, because they work the entire torso. We doctors would have far less work if everyone took a disciplined approach to looking after their bodies.
Visana’s AIA Benefits Centre offers second opinions from the Sonnenhof clinic as an exclusive special service for companies with Visana accident insurance. During the pilot phase, people who have had accidents can obtain a second opinion from Prof. Stefan Eggli and his specialist team before undergoing knee surgery.
The necessity for the operation and the procedure to be used are assessed free of charge, based on the patient’s medical records. The person affected by the accident then decides for themselves whether or not to follow the recommendations from the second opinion. Visana then accepts their decision on medical treatment. People who have had accidents can obtain a second opinion by contacting the Visana professional responsible for their case.