From February 26th to March 1st, 2024, Prof. Petersen, Director of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery of Martin Luther Hospital, Vice President of the German-speaking Society for Orthopedic-Traumatological Sports Medicine (GOTS), and former president of the German Knee Society (DKG), was invited to visit Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM as an international visiting professor and conduct a series of academic exchange activities, including outpatient consultations, ward rounds, surgical guidance, internal symposiums, discussions on department management and complex cases, and public lectures, etc.

Highlights

From February 26th to March 1st, Prof. Petersen, Director of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery of the hospital, Vice President of the German-speaking Society for Orthopedic-Traumatological Sports Medicine (GOTS) for Germany, and former president of the German Knee Society (DKG), conducted a one-week visiting professorship at Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Nanchang. During his visit, Prof. Petersen, jointly with ZHANG Zhiqiang, FAN Shaoyao, Vice Hospital Presidents, ZHOU Ming, Director of the Sports Medicine Department and the team of Sports Medicine, carried out a series of academic exchange activities, including ward rounds, case discussions, surgical guidance, internal symposiums and public lectures, etc., whose topics covered the clinical hot spots of sports medicine, clinical research of orthopedics, the management and team construction of the hospital and department and so on. This is Prof. Petersen's first visit to China. His week-long visit to Hongdu Hospital of TCM in Nanchang presented him with an overview of TCM culture, and a brief understanding of the clinical efficacy of integrated Chinese and Western medicine as well as the current development of sports medicine in China. Prof. Peterson pointed out that the visit is a perfect beginning of the Sino-German cooperation in sports medicine between the two departments, the two hospitals, and even the two countries. He hopes to work with Chinese colleagues to attract more medical students to orthopedics, more orthopedics surgeons to sports medicine, and more sports medicine doctors to further development of sports medicine on a global scale. Despite the tight schedule, Prof. Petersen also took time to visit the Museum of August 1 Nanchang Uprising, the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, and the Tengwang Pavilion, all of which are of great importance to Nanchang and China. Overlooking from the Tengwang Pavilion, the Ganjiang River flows gently through Nanchang City, as if it is whispering about what the city has gone through. Prof. Petersen said that this visit offered him a closer look at the culture and history of China and he felt very fortunate to have come to this historic “City of Heroes” at the special time to ring in the Chinese New Year, to enjoy the strong atmosphere of Spring Festival, and to feel the respect for heroes and the promotion of the spirit of martyrdom by locals and tourists, as well as to learn about the significance of Nanchang to China from ancient times to the present.

Inauguration Ceremony for “Sino-German Communication Center for Sports Medicine”

On the morning of February 26th, a welcome ceremony for Prof. Peterson was held at the Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM, which was organized and attended by ZHANG Zhiqiang and FAN Shaoyong, Vice Presidents of the hospital, HU Hejun, Director of Orthopedics Department, ZHOU Ming, Director of Dept. of Sports Medicine and the team of Sports Medicine.

Vice Hospital President FAN delivered a speech in English to welcome Prof. Petersen and expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Petersen for travelling all the way to Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM. Vice President FAN said that over the years, the hospital has always been earnestly implementing the major strategic deployment of the country to promote the construction of a healthy China, seizing development opportunities, strengthening in-depth international cooperation and actively promoting international exchanges combined. He also hoped that the two sides would take this opportunity to further deepen the cooperation, further develop sports medicine and promote patient care on a global scale.

Afterwards, Vice Hospital President ZHANG and Prof. Peterson moderated the inauguration for the “Sino-German Communication Center for Sports Medicine”. Vice President ZHANG issued a letter-of-appointment of visiting professor to Prof. Peterson.

Prof. Petersen introduced at the welcoming ceremony the Martin Luther Hospital is located in Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is a public church general hospital with a long history, which was officially put into operation on March 15th, 1931. Designed by the renowned architect Ernst Kopp, the hospital was one of the first hospitals with block system in Germany. The hospital has a wide spectrum of different specialties and is also an academic teaching hospital of Charité University Medicine Berlin.

After the welcome ceremony, Vice President FAN personally showed Prof. Petersen a tour of the hospital, introducing him various in-hospital preparations and plasters available at Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM. Furthermore, Prof. Peterson, together with Vice President Fan, also visited the Outpatient Pharmacy, Acupuncture and Moxibustion Treatment Center, Rehabilitation Center, and the Dept. of Sports Medicine and gained an overview of how TCM physicians utilize acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, tuina(massage) and other distinctive traditional Chinese therapies to provide effective treatment for patients as well as ultrasound-guided operation of using the small needle-knife to treat patients with sports injuries.

Learning about the Hospital’s self-made Preparations plus TCM Tuina and Observations on Hydra Moxibustion Therapy

Training on ACL Reconstruction in Children

On the afternoon of February 26th, Prof. Petersen delivered an internal lecture on the topic of “ACL Reconstruction in Children” at the Dept. of Sports Medicine Prof. Peterson shared his experience and insights into the treatment of ACL injuries in children from the aspects of mechanism and type of injury, surgical indications, management procedures and selection of surgical techniques and grafts, supplemented by detailed cases and literature.

Afterwards, Dr. HOU Huiming from the Dept. of Sports Medicine of Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM reported on the cases of “ACL Repair in Children” and “ACL Revision in Children” respectively, and Prof. Petersen highly agreed with the treatment plan of Director ZHOU 's team.

Afterwards, Dr. HOU Huiming from the Dept. of Sports Medicine of Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM reported on the cases of “ACL Repair in Children” and “ACL Revision in Children” respectively, and Prof. Petersen highly agreed with the treatment plan of Director ZHOU 's team.

This is Prof. Petersen's first visit to China. He intends to take this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the clinical application of TCM and Chinese and Western Integrative medicine in sports medicine, and to promote exchanges and cooperation with Chinese colleagues.

Participation in Ward Rounds

On the morning of Feb 27, Prof Petersen arrived at the Dept. of Sports Medicine of the hospital and conducted ward rounds led by Vice President FAN and Department Director ZHOU. Prof. Petersen and the Sports Medicine team reviewed the imaging data respectively of all the inpatients, discussed the surgical plan for preoperative patients, evaluated the surgical efficacy and provided recommendations on rehabilitation plans for postoperative patients. Prof. Petersen highly acknowledged the treatment concept of the team headed by Vice President FAN and Director ZHOU, and expressed his eagerness to visit the operating room.

Lecture on “Failed ACL Reconstruction: Failure Analysis and Revision”

In the afternoon, Prof. Petersen carried out another internal lecture entitled “Failed ACL Reconstruction: Failure Analysis and Revision”. Prof. Peterson stated that the reasons for the failure of ACL reconstruction must be thoroughly analyzed before ACL revision. And we should mainly consider the following factors: whether the posterior tibial slope is too large, whether there is double varus deformity and peripheral instability around the knee joint, and whether metal implants were used in the reconstruction, whether the bone tunnel is anatomically positioned, whether the tunnel has been widened, and what grafts are available for revision. The selection of revision techniques and implants for different reasons of failure is also included.

Observation in the OR and Experience Sharing 

On February 28th, Prof. Petersen visited the operating room to observe an ACL reconstruction surgery and a medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction surgery performed by Director ZHOU. During the operation, Prof. Petersen had a heated discussion on the details of the operation with Director ZHOU's team and highly appreciated the techniques they adopt and their proficient surgical skills.

Prof. Peterson then took the medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction and consultation case observed today as the starting point, and shared his experience and insights on dynamic MPFL reconstruction, meniscus transplantation, cartilage transplantation, and osteotomy in details with demonstration videos and cases. Director ZHOU also shared a case of cartilage transplantation and analyze the techniques he adopts. Regarding the treatment concepts, the two sides were highly compatible with each other, and they also seek common ground while preserving differences in the selection of surgical techniques. 

Sino-German Public Lecture on Sports Medicine

On the morning of February 29th, Prof. Petersen held an open class of Sino-German Sports Medicine at Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM. Vice President FAN moderated the public lecture and gave a welcome speech.

Prof. Petersen started with the topic "Management of ACL Injuries: Update 2024", which detailed the widely recognized concepts and recent progress in ACL injuries among the international community of Sports Medicine. Prof. Petersen demonstrated that ACL injuries are primarily non-contact injuries and the main risk factor is dynamic valgus of the knee joint during exercises. ACL injuries can be prevented by improving movement patterns through neuromuscular training programs.

Secondary osteoarthritis after ACL rupture is essentially determined by the associated injuries, and the main indications for surgery are whether there are associated injuries, such as meniscus injuries or medial collateral ligament injuries and whether the patient can be defined as a "coper" as well as the patient's age and intensity of exercise.

For the selection of surgical techniques for ACL reconstruction, Prof. Peterson introduced various surgical techniques including anatomic ACL reconstruction, remnant preserving techniques and the treatment of associated injuries. He recommended that postoperative patients should undergo 9-12months of standard rehabilitation and a complete RTS test battery before returning to exercise.

After a short break, Prof. Petersen gave a presentation on "How to Select appropriate topics/cases for clinical research from daily practice". Prof. Petersen shared that actively performing clinical research can offer numerous personal and professional knowledge for young doctors. Secondly, when choosing a research topic, it must be new and innovative. Thirdly, he recommended the young researchers to begin a literature search with a systematic review, which requires the right study design and the use of suitable PROMs, etc. He also elaborated on how to efficiently look for the right journal and strongly encouraged young doctors to present their results at scientific meetings before publishing to draw more inspiration from the discussion sessions.

The lecture was well-attended and the atmosphere was quite lively, with many questions from the floor. Prof. Peterson hopes that this public lecture will motivate more medical students to engage in orthopedics, and more orthopedic surgeons to specialize in sports medicine. And he also expects that young doctors can be more devoted to clinical research, which can help guide their clinical work.

Department Management, Specialty Construction and Talent Cultivation of Sport Medicine

March 1st marked the last day of Prof. Petersen's international visiting professorship atNanchang Hongdu Hospital of TCM. Prof. Petersen lectured on the topic of "Department Management, Specialty Construction and Talent Cultivation of Sport Medicine". Vice President FAN attended the meeting, along with ZHOU, Director of Sports Medicine, DENG Xiongwei, Director of Foot and Ankle Surgery II, and HUANG Haiming, Director of Intelligent Minimally Invasive Orthopedics and others.

Prof. Petersen noted that he has been managing the department for 16 years. In his view, the most important aspects of a department director are talent training, specialty construction, quality management, error culture development, branding of the department, lean management, team building, and committing to introducing new technologies and developing new techniques.

Vice President FAN and his team highly recognized the Prof. Petersen’s management concept, stating that healthcare has no borders, and although we are in different countries, our concern for talents and love for sports medicine are interlinked.

Then Prof. Petersen, Vice President FAN and Director ZHOU respectively made a summary of Prof. Petersen's visiting professorships activities this week.

Following Nanchang Hospital of TCM's participation in the first International Knee Day in 2020, this was the first offline exchange between Prof. Peterson and the hospital's sports medicine team. Both parties anticipate that this exchange will serve as a springboard for jointly developing sports medicine and training more future leading talents for China.

Starting in 2024, Prof. Petersen will begin receiving Chinese visiting fellows and MD students from China.