PROMOTION
HEALTHCAREtendons are painful and need to rest and recover. Since he
hasn’t cut the patient’s soft tissue, Dr. Berger can test the new
knee to determine its original, pre-arthritis position—another
advantage over traditional techniques, he said.“I restore the joint’s location to where it was before, which
makes the joint function more normally,” Dr. Berger said.
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a little, it doesn’t function right. When you put the knee in
the right spot, the knee functions very smoothly with no
gaps, no bounces and no clicks.”When they come to him, some patients need accessible
parking permits for people with disabilities because walking
across a parking lot is too painful. Others are forced to wait
IRUDQHOHYDWRUHYHQIRURQHżLJKWRIVWDLUVDr. Berger’s goal for his patients extends beyond eliminating
their pain; he enables them to resume the activities they love,
such as running marathons, skydiving, skiing or playing with
children and grandchildren.“We think of arthritis as grandma’s disease,” Dr. Berger said.
“It’s not. The average age of the patients I operate on is 52.
They’re younger. They’re active. They’re working. They’re taking
care of their households, supporting their households.”Gleason, who turns 63 on Oct. 27, started running at
Texas A&M in the 1970s and ran his first ultramarathon,
a 50-miler, in 2002. He averages about 70 miles a week,
ramping that number up to about 100 miles per week dur-
ing peak training for an ultramarathon. His ultramarathons
are measured in both miles and days.Gleason’s knee pain increased gradually. He took two
months off from running after dropping out of the 135-mile
race. He tried running again and couldn’t make it even a
quarter of a mile.Then, he accompanied a friend to a post-surgery
appointment with Dr. Berger.“Dr. Berger looked at my swollen knee and said, ‘What’s
your story?’” Gleason recalled. The doctor sent Gleason for
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knee—and, yes, Gleason could resume running afterward.Gleason had knee replacement surgery Jan. 30, 2018,
started biking the next week, started a mix of running and
ZDONLQJE\WKHHQGRI)HEUXDU\DQGUDQŻYHPLOHVRQ0DUFK“I have to admit I was a little skeptical,” Gleason said of his
return to running. “Because running had been such a large
part of my life, I was willing to give [knee replacement] a try. I
am putting as many miles on it as I did before the onset of the
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ing for ultras, and his answer was he would never recommend
running 100+ mile races but if I was crazy enough to do it, the
knee would not be a limiting factor.”Ph
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TAKING PRECAUTIONS
AGAINST COVID-19
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Berger
and his team are taking strict precautions, said
nurse and team leader Jenny Sprenzel, R.N.When surgeries resumed at the end of April,
the team instituted even stricter cleaning
protocols and all staff are masked during
any patient interaction, Sprenzel said. Office
hours have been extended to allow for social
distancing in the waiting room. Plus, the
patient pre-op education class is now a video
meeting as opposed to an in-person class.Patients take a COVID-19 test 72 hours before
surgery and are then asked to self-quarantine
until the procedure, Sprenzel said. Protocols are
changing frequently for elective surgeries based
on the local guidelines. As of August, any family
or visitors are strictly limited to one person to
comply with social distancing. All visitors are
screened and required to wear a mask. In all
interactions, both the medical team and patients
are masked.“Our patients have been very comfortable
with how everything is handled,” Sprenzel said.Dr. Richard A. Berger and and Jenny Sprenzel, NP-C, review review
X-rays for a telehealth consultation.