Under the Knife: Memorial Hermann Live Tweets ACL Surgery

Orthopedic surgeon Walt Lowe will be reconstructing the anterior curciate ligament of a 19-year-old athlete live on Twitter tomorrow morning starting at 7:30 a.m. The patient, a college student who is an avid runner, tore her ACL playing intramural football.

Using the hashtag, #MHKnee, Dr. Lowe will showcase a patellar tendon autograft – most often performed on athletes – and use live, up-close video, still photography and play-by-play tweets to inform and educate the audience from the time the patient arrives at the surgery center until she is wheeled into recovery.

Dr. Lowe is the medical director of the Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Sports Medicine Institute and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UTHealth.

Dr. Steven Flores, a fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon also affiliated with the Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Sports Medicine Institute and assistant professor at UTHealth, will be answering questions in real time during the Twittercast. Russ Paine, a physical therapist at the Institute who helped Peterson get back to the gridiron following his ACL repair, will be taking questions on post-surgery rehabilitation.

You can follow along live here. The surgery starts at 7:30 a.m. when the patient is wheeled in, but the first incision is not expected until the 9 o’clock hour.

For more information check the IRONMAN Memorial Hermann web site.