Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy

The Knee, Ankle and Sports Traumatology Surgery Unit currently consists of five members: Ricardo Varatojo (coordinator), Ricardo Telles de Freitas, Mário Vale, Nuno Marques Luís, and João Cabral. We operate as a team within the framework of the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Centre (COT) at Hospital CUF Descobertas. Younger and less experienced members are mentored through all activities, especially surgery, and are integrated into the diagnostic and treatment principles applied to each patient. This teamwork allows us to discuss and manage the most complex, rare, or challenging cases, ensuring our patients receive the most advanced and safest care possible.

Postgraduate training is a cornerstone of our work, both by organising and teaching courses and lectures nationally and internationally. We are a European ESSKA-accredited training centre in our specialty. Scientific engagement ensures our practice remains evidence-based, with all new techniques tested and validated before clinical application. International collaborations provide access to new ideas and treatments.

Over the years, we have been pioneers in Portugal in introducing and developing many advanced surgical techniques, including:

Oxford Knee medial unicompartmental arthroplasty (2003) and lateral unicompartmental arthroplasty (2007).
Development of our own approach to patellofemoral disorders and introduction of Grooveplasty for recurrent patellar dislocation in severe dysplasia.
Meniscal repair techniques (all-inside, inside-out, outside-in) with a commitment to preservation whenever possible.
Tibial and femoral osteotomies for malalignment-related osteoarthritis, including medial opening wedge HTO with Tomofix (2005) after training in Basel with one of its inventors.
Early adoption (2005) of platelet-rich plasma for degenerative, cartilage, tendon, and muscle pathologies.
Meniscal allograft transplantation since 2009, with over 60 procedures performed and positive outcomes.
Minimally invasive total and revision knee arthroplasty, PCL-sacrificing, with patellar resurfacing (around 260 cases/year).
Anatomical ACL reconstruction, mostly with autografts (hamstring or bone-patellar tendon-bone), adapted to the patient’s profile.
Complex multiligament knee reconstructions with auto- and allografts for high-energy trauma and sports injuries.