New Hampshire Orthopaedic Surgery

is Manchester's oldest and most established orthopaedic practice. Having served our community for over 40 years, we provide the highest level of patient care with an emphasis on sub-specialty care in each specialty area of orthopaedics. This includes: Hand, Spine, Sports Medicine, Foot, Ankle and Total Joint Replacement

We are committed to the philosophy that, in a field that is rapidly changing and developing, subspecialists are best able to stay up to date on all new developments in their field and are best able to provide patients with the most efficient and effective care.

Recent News & Articles

ACL Injuries - By Gregory W. Soghikian, M.D.

ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury is the most common knee ligament problem that comes to surgery. Made famous by professional football players like Jerry Rice and skiers including Picabo Street, they are even more common now with the increasing popularity of sports, especially indoor and outdoor soccer.

The ACL is one of the knees’ central ligaments and helps to keep the top half of the knee from shifting out off the bottom half. If you are moving straight forward it doesn’t get used much, but as you turn or shift direction quickly it comes in to play to keep the knee stable. While some ACL injured knees do not act very unstable for day-to-day activities, most won’t put up with sports that require side-to-side motion and many may progress to cartilage injuries and arthritis over time.

While in the past ACL injuries and reconstruction were seen as career ending and life changing events, they are now viewed as just one more hurdle to cross by high level athletes. (Picabo Street has had 3). For the non-elite athlete ACL reconstruction was frequently reserved only for the very young or very active patient, and many were encouraged to just live with it. Advances in surgical techniques have significantly expanded the number of patients eligible for reconstruction.

ACL reconstruction surgery has evolved from something to be avoided unless absolutely necessary to a fine-tuned procedure with many technical options, relatively low risks and a high percentage of good and excellent outcomes. From a surgery that required a 5-7 day hospital stay and 6 weeks in a long leg cast, it has evolved to an outpatient procedure with early motion, rapid weight bearing and accelerated therapy with time away from work as short as a week. The range of patients who have reconstructions goes from teenagers to baby-boomers, from elite athletes to weekend warriors and occasionally couch potatoes. One of the largest increases in reconstruction procedures has been in middle-aged patients with ACL injuries that may have occurred 10 or more years ago. Don’t misunderstand the surgical complexity of a reconstruction or underestimate the amount of time and effort patients go through to fully and successfully rehabilitate an ACL, but also don’t be turned off by outdated information or age limits. If you’ve had a recent or an old ACL injury it should be carefully evaluated.

The details, choices and risks of both operative and non-operative treatment should be discussed with an orthopaedic surgeon who routinely does reconstructions, then the decision is yours.

Dr. Gregory Soghikian is an Orthopaedic Surgeon with New Hampshire Orthopaedic Surgery who specializes in Sports Medicine. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University, he received his general surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed his Orthopaedic residency at George Washington University. He trained for an additional fellowship year in California concentrating on knee and shoulder reconstruction. Dr. Soghikian is a physician consultant to the World Professional Ski Tour and the New Hampshire Inter-Scholastic Athletic Association Sports Medicine Council. He was named by New Hampshire Magazine as one of the two best Sports Medicine surgeons in New Hampshire.

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