Melbourne knee spe******ts

[Syd Uni sports clinic]

BTW, if you make a post and leave your name as "Unregistered" and someone else does the same thing, it is hard to follow who is who. Better to give yourself a name if you want people to directly reply to your posts.

[dave_worland]

Hi people,
Can anyone tell me about Ian Hendersons work? A friend of mine is a physio and recommended him as a surgeon but before making my decision I was looking for some extra feedback on what some real experiences might have been like. Another option recommended was Hayden Morris who has been spoken of quite highly here!
Thanks,
Dave

[injuryupdate]

Ian Henderson is a pretty old school surgeon, in my opinion. Very experienced, technically good but generally has a typical surgeon's bedside manner. He is definitely in the A-list of Melbourne sports surgeons (does plenty of work for St Kilda) but may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Hayden Morris is a bit younger than Henderson and probably has done less career procedures, however, maybe a bit more personable for some patients. He would also on the A-list for most referring practitioners.

In choosing between Henderson and Morris it is like choosing between a VW and a Honda - both make good cars, some slight differences but hardly anyone would say you bought a crummy brand of car. The anology continues in that you might expect to pay good money as well.

By the way, people are welcome to make personal comments about doctors, surgeons and physios etc on this Forum with the rules of:
(1) try to be objective - you can fairly state that you had a bad outcome with surgeon X but from this one bad outcome you can't generalise to say X is a bad surgeon.
(2) anything defamatory is not on - if we find it we'll delete it.

[Unregistered]

Hi I have had over 20 operations with Ian Henderson he is certainly old school. You may wait 1 hour in the waiting room and then when you get to see him he might give you about 5 minutes if you are lucky, but he is straight to the point, he will send you for a xray or MRI that day if you have travelled like I do. and operate the next week. I started attending his clinic back in 1988 for Shoulder Reconstructions RGT and LFT shoulders, he was the only surgeon in Melbourne who new what was wrong with my joints. They would be reconstructed and once I started physio they would pop out. I now have a Kennedy LAD Synthetic Ligament, pins,screews etc in one of my shoulders. The only option I have is to have my shoulder fused to stop the pain it is called a arthrodesis, which at the moment I am only 42 cannot have done. This operation has not been done before in Australia so it is an unknown world. He has allways had overseas trainee surgeons with him to learn and are very good in their own right.

Last week I had to have an arthroscope on my knee to remove the following: bakers cyst, broken bone, bone spurs, cartliage and the synovial membrane removed. I awoke with a drain tube in and also a femoral artery pain block. I did not see Ian in hospital (which is not unusual) the Mercy which is where his rooms are. I spent 5 days in hospital and went back last wed and found that I have a large internal ulcer in my knee, which he cleaned up as much as possible, he had 4 pages of photos to show me what me knee looked like on the inside "pretty bloody bad". I will never be able to walk properly, kneel down,squat, walk up or down stairs I said I am only 42 that does not leave much for me to do? So at the moment I am a little bit depressed as I cannot swim because of shoulders and no other sport because of my knee.

As with Henderson when I started he operated on the Geelong, Hawthorn, St.Kilda and Carlton Football teams but because of ethics etc he now operates on only St. Kilda footballers.

I was in the waiting room one day and there was Spider Everett, Andrew Bews, Nicky Winmar and another sports person and we had al had our shoulders operated on the same day. If you have a look at the ninemsn site they have an article about him when he was on the footy show doing Everetts knee.

Compared to another surgeon I have he is very abrupt and does not have a bed side manner, but he is one of the leading surgeons in this country and is currently doing a lot of cartligage regrowth.

So I can recommend him as his skills are the best, but dont walk in there until you have tried every other angle like physio etc, as he is not one to operate unless he needs to.

[injuryupdate]

Thanks for these comments - constructive and paints a fair picture (from one person's perspective) what this surgeon is like. Others may disagree, but it gives you an idea that if you want cuddles and sympathy then he may not be the specialist you should see, but if difficult technical surgery is required then his reputation is very good.

[Unregistered]

I love it! Hendo certainly does have 'typical surgeons bedside manner! I always treat my appointments with him like i am preparing for a school exam. Make sure you are prepared, know what you want to ask him (i make a list), and then when you do get in the room with him, don't bother saying hello - just get stuck into. I've had six ops with hendo, and i wouldn't go to anyone else.

[Unregistered]

Hi I am the person who posted no. 24, yes you are right I could never go to another surgeon and if you have your questions ready he will answer them straight to the point. He allways gives you the answers and has lots of pictures of your operation.

Has anyone been diagnosed as having a large ulcer growing inside their knee? As Hendo said this is very rare case and there is little information on this as it is caused by degnerative and wear and tear. If anyone has any information I would be gratefull.

[Unregistered]

I have torn my medial ligament 2 weeks ago and was seen in Epworth hospital by Mr Peter Gard. Has anyone hard of him? I am a little concerned as no MRI was done at the time. I have tried to get in to see Julian Feller, John Bartlett and Hayden Morris but no joy.

[Alla]

I didnt have an MRI either when I ruptured my ACL. They could tell by the physical tests and how my knee presented what I had done, so Im not suprised that you havent been sent for an MRI. MRIs can be expensive, and dont always pick up what is wrong anyway. Im not much help on what Peter Gard is like, I saw one of the other three that you mentioned.

Alla

[Unregistered]

Had My ACL reco done by hayden morris on the 29/10/2005 and i'm fine, had a hamstring graft, was walking without crutches after 2.5 weeks, walking without a limp after 4-5 weeks, everything went fine, also had 2 screws in the side of my knee for a compression fracture aswell (did my ACL, MCL and fracture, my knee went the same way as robert murphy)

It's been 8-9 months and i'm back to sport (not competitive yet) I can say that i'm very happy with hayden morris's work and can't recommend him enough