Renowned Action Sports Doctor Begins Year-Long Study to Better Understand the Effectiveness of Athletes Wearing Knee Braces During Sports

HOUSTON – A proponent of preventative medicine, Dr. Mark Sanders of the Sanders Clinic for Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine has for years helped athletes avoid serious injury by teaching the importance of balanced strength training and reconditioning programs. Specializing in sports injuries, particularly those affecting the knee, Dr. Sanders has now launched a study assessing the effect knee braces have in preventing injury or the recurrence of one when worn during sports activities.

Over the course of a year, the study will follow athletes in the motocross sport, who wear knee braces to protect the knee and those that do not. The data will then be assessed and reported to sports medicine journals in order to aid physicians and athletes alike by separating marketing reports from factual findings. The study is receiving no outside funding and is intended to objectively assess the effectiveness of such orthotic devices and the quality of the information regarding such devices sports medicine physicians and orthopaedic surgeons give to their patients.

“The knee brace has been part of an ongoing debate in orthopedic medicine. How effective or ineffective it may be, depending on the athlete, activity and condition of their knee, has not really been studied,” said Dr. Sanders, a board certified orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor of over 20 years.

“I believe we have an obligation to help our patients understand the role such devices may play in sports – from a medical rather than a marketing perspective. I’m not interested in selling knee braces. I’m interested in keeping my patients healthy and strong in their sport,” added Dr. Sanders.

With offices at the River Oaks Medical Tower (formerly Twelve Oaks Medical Center), Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center and Surgery Specialty Hospitals of America in Pasadena, where he is also Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery,
Dr. Sanders sees both action sports and traditional sports athletes from across the United States. As an athlete himself, he understands the drive athletes have to get back to their sport and tailors their treatment and rehabilitation accordingly.

Dr. Sanders is the Health Moderator on a number of motocross forums, including HOUSTONMOTOCROSS.COM, KTMTALK.COM AND THUMPERTALK.COM – all of which will feature a link to the knee brace study questionnaire. The questionnaire will also be posted on the Sanders Clinic website, www.sandersclinic.net.

Dr. Sanders was listed among H Texas Magazine’s Top Docs two years in a row and among Health & Fitness magazine’s Phenomenal Physicians for 2006-07. He is featured in the Medicine Men of Texas book of exemplary medical professionals and serves as a health and fitness contributor to BMX Today magazine and Transworld Motocross online. To learn more about Dr. Sanders and The Sanders Clinic, log onto www.sandersclinic.net or call 713-622-3576, or 1-888-8 DR MARK today.