|
Orthopaedic
Surgery Department Faculty

Richard W. Nicholas, M.D.
Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery
Professor of Orthopaedics and Pathology
Director of Education ACRC
Appointment: 1989
Dr. Nicholas has developed the state's only program dedicated to the study of
orthopaedic tumors. He has gained wide recognition as a specialist in limb salvage surgery
in the treatment of bone and soft tissue cancers.
He serves clinical duties at both the UAMS Medical Center and the Arkansas
Children's Hospital, treating adults and children afflicted with malignant and benign
orthopaedic tumors. Dr. Nicholas is presently involved in developing biologic techniques
to study the cells of bone and soft tissue cancers. His research interests
include benign vascular malformations.
Dr. Nicholas is a member of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, the Orthopaedic
Research Society, the Children's Oncology Group, the International Society of Limb Salvage,
and the Mid-America Orthopaedic Association.

James Aronson, M.D.
Professor of Orthopaedics
Pediatrics Section
Appointment: 1984
Dr. Aronson graduated from Princeton University, University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Duke University Orthopaedics and then
Fellowship in Pediatric Orthopaedics at AI DuPont Institute. Following traveling
fellowships in Italy, Switzerland and Germany, in 1985, Dr. Aronson performed
the first leg lengthening procedure in North America using the Ilizarov method.
Today, he is recognized worldwide as the leading researcher in this distraction
osteogenesis technique of bone lengthening which was first developed in Russia.
Over the past 25 years, Dr. Aronson has used the Ilizarov
method in hundreds of patients to salvage limbs (arms and legs) that were
shortened from congenital deformity or trauma and to reconstruct complex angular
deformities, osteomyelitis and non-unions in patients as young as 22 months and
older than 50 who would otherwise face amputation or life-long handicaps.
He joined UAMS in 1984 and for the past 20 years has been
Chief of Pediatric Orthopaedics at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. He currently
serves as a editor for Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma and Clinical Orthopaedics
and Related Research.
As the 1995 recipient of the Arthur H. Huene Memorial
Award presented by the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society, Dr. Aronson was only the
fifth person ever honored by his colleagues in North America for making
significant research contributions to the field of pediatric orthopaedics.
In 2003, he received the prestigious Nicolas Andry Award,
in Paris, for his research involving fibroblast growth factor to reverse
deficits in osteogenesis associated with aging.
Dr. Aronson has considerable expertise and interest in
the area of pediatric and young adult hip problems, as well as, clubfoot and
other pediatric foot deformities. His ongoing research in distraction
osteogenesis concentrates on nutritional, hormonal and growth factors that
affect bone growth.

John L. Vander Schilden, M.D.
Professor
of Orthopaedics
Sports Medicine
Section
Appointment: 1985
John Vander Schilden, M.D., a former football player and wrestler, is the
department's chief sports medicine specialist. His clinical work focuses on sports
injuries and trauma, and his research activities include studying meniscal repair,
biomechanics of ligaments and biomechanics of fixation devices.
Dr. Vander Schilden grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and graduated from DePauw
University in 1973 with a degree in Zoology. He graduated from Rush Medical College in
1977 and completed Orthopaedic Surgery residency training programs at the University of
Florida and the University of South Florida before taking a fellowship to study Trauma and
Sports Medicine in Munich, Germany, in 1985.
He is a team physician for the University of Arkansas athletic departments in
Fayetteville and Little Rock and a consultant to the National Football league.
Dr. Vander
Schilden has served as a team physician for the NCAA wrestling championships, the Arkansas
Travelers minor league baseball team, and at the Olympic Training Center in 1991 at Lake
Placid, New York.

R. Dale Blasier, M.D.
Professor of Orthopaedics
Residency Program Director
Pediatrics Section
Appointment: 1989
Dr. Blasier specializes in treating children's sports injuries
and spine deformities.
He serves as vice chief of the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery and director of
Pediatric Orthopaedic Traumatology at
Arkansas Children's Hospital.
While his primary area of research has been in the area of orthopaedic trauma,
Dr. Blasier has recently focused his energies on studying absorbable implants in fracture
fixation. His professional interests also include orthopaedic management of spinal
deformities and neuromuscular diseases.

J. Michael Gruenwald MD FACS Professor of Orthopaedics
Trauma Section
Appointment: 1989
Dr. Gruenwald, a native of Vienna, Austria, joined the UAMS faculty in
1989. He specializes in the treatment of pelvic and complex acetabulum fractures
and dislocations. He provides orthopaedic care for patients with severe upper
and lower extremity injuries. Patients who suffer from severe complications
after skeletal injury, such as malunion, nonunion and osteomyelitis are an
important part of his clinical practice.
Dr. Gruenwald lectures nationally and internationally. He truly loves his
teaching responsibilities and has won the Dr. Selakovich Teaching Award twice.
He believes that the challenging interaction with younger surgeons from
different academic medical centers is important. It is these interactions that
keep us senior surgeons on the cutting edge of orthopaedic development,
Gruenwald says.
Dr. Gruenwald, who has been published in the field of orthopedic trauma, is
senior adviser to several European and American scientific journals. He has
gained the prestigious Best Doctors in America recognition twice. In 2006 he
was nominated Chairman of the Governors Council on Trauma in Arkansas.

Ruth L.
Thomas, M.D.Professor of Orthopaedics
Director of the Center for Foot and Ankle Surgery
Appointment: 1989
Dr. Thomas is a fellowship trained foot and ankle orthopaedic surgeon and the
Director of the Center for Foot and Ankle Surgery at UAMS.
A graduate of the University of Central Arkansas in 1978, Dr. Thomas served as
a physical therapist at Arkansas Children's Hospital from 1979 to 1980, working with spina
bifida patients. She then returned to school to earn a medical degree from the University
of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1984. Her transitional internship and orthopaedic
surgery residency training were also completed at UAMS. Dr. Greer Richardson directed her
foot and ankle fellowship training at the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee in 1992.
Her clinical practice provides complete foot and ankle care encompassing all
aspects of patient care from treating corns and calluses to performing complicated foot
reconstructions. Her research interests include biomechanical alterations related to
various hind foot fusions and reconstructive procedures.
Dr. Thomas is a member of the American Medical Association and Alpha Omega
Alpha Honor Society. She is certified in both Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Advanced
Trauma Life Support.

Richard E. McCarthy, M.D.
Professor of Orthopaedics
Pediatrics Section Appointment: 2008 Dr. McCarthy grew up in New
York earning his medical degree from State University of New York Downstate
Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. His orthopaedic residency was done at the
Harvard Combined Training Program after completing preliminary training in
internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and general surgery at Tufts New
England Medical Center.
He completed fellowships in both pediatric orthopaedics and scoliosis at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts . He
is actively involved in research in the care of spinal deformities in children
traveling internationally lecturing on these principles. He currently is
President-Elect of the Scoliosis Research Society, an international group whose
primary goal is to teach the principles and techniques of care of the patient
with spinal deformities.
Dr. McCarthy is a member of several specialty study groups on
spinal deformity, as well as the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America,
the North American Spine Society, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic
Surgeons. He has been voted one of the best doctors in America since 2001. He is
a reviewer for the
Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. He originally joined the staff at UAMS
and ACH in 1981 and has recently returned to academic medicine after 20 years in
private practice. He is Professor and Chief of Spinal Deformities in the
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UAMS and Arkansas Children?s Hospital.

Corey Montgomery, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Orthopaedic Oncology
Appointment: 2010 Dr. Montgomery has joined
the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery as an Assistant Professor and orthopaedic
oncologist. Dr. Montgomery received his medical degree from the University of
Tennessee School of Medicine in Memphis in 2004. He completed his residency in
orthopaedic surgery at UAMS, winning the Orthopaedic Outstanding Resident
Teaching Award and the Carl L. Nelson Leadership Award in 2009. Dr. Montgomery
completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology at the University of
Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital this year.

David T. Sward, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Hip and Knee Section
Appointment: 2000
Dr. Sward is a native Arkansan, born in Stuttgart. After attending Arkansas
State University, he graduated from UAMS with a B.S. in Medical Technology in
1965 and an M.D. in 1969. Following an internship at St. John's Hospital,
Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dr. Sward served three years as a flight surgeon in the Air
Force. He was stationed primarily at Luke AFB, Arizona and later as a
flight surgeon for the USAF Aerial Demonstration team, the Thunderbirds.
He began his residency in orthopaedics at UAMS under Dr. Don Kettelkamp in
1973 and finished under Dr. Carl Nelson in 1976. He was appointed as a
Clinical Instructor in 1977 and in 1978 became an Assistant Professor of
Orthopaedics. Dr. Sward subsequently entered solo private practice in Mountain
Home, Arkansas where, in addition to general orthopaedics, he concentrated on
joint replacements.
In 2000, Dr. Sward joined the UAMS Orthopaedic Department and became Chief of
the Orthopaedic Section at Central Arkansas Veteran's Health Care System.
He is a fellow of AAOS, a member of AAHKS (American Association of Hip & Knee
Surgeons), President-elect of the Arkansas Orthopaedic Society, a member of AMA
and the Arkansas Medical Society.

Pramod Nelluri, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery
Appointment:
2005
Dr. Pramod Nelluri is Chief of the Hand Surgery section at Central Arkansas
Veterans Health Care System and staff hand surgeon at Arkansas Children's
Hospital. Dr. Nelluri did his residency training in Plastic
Surgery at Osmania University, India. Later following his internship at The
University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, he served a fellowship
in Hand & Microsurgery at Christine M Kleinert Institute, Louisville, KY. Dr
Nelluri is a trained Micro-surgeon having completed a year training at McMaster
University, Ontario, Canada. Recently he completed a Hand/Upper extremity
fellowship here a UAMS under Dr. Randy Bindra.
Dr. Nelluri specializes and treats all
disorders of hand and elbow. Presently, he holds a faculty position at UAMS as
an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He is the
recipient of the Walter G. Selakovich
Faculty Teaching Award for his outstanding contribution to the training of the
orthopaedic chief resident staff in 2008.
His research interests include, peripheral nerve regeneration, stability of
fracture fixation in hands and tendon healing.

Theresa Wyrick-Glover, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Center for Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery
Appointment: 2009
Dr. Wyrick-Glover, M.D., is an orthopaedic surgeon at the
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Arkansas Children's
Hospital (ACH). She is an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic
Surgery in the College of Medicine at UAMS.
Dr. Wyrick graduated suma cum laude from the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science
in Biology. She graduated with honors from UAMS in 2003 where she was a
member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. Upon completion of a
residency in orthopaedic surgery at UAMS in 2008, she received the Carl
Nelson Resident Leadership Award. She completed her fellowship in hand
and upper extremity surgery at Thomas Jefferson University in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July 2009. She is a native of Little
Rock, Arkansas.
She specializes in nerve injuries of the upper
extremity including nerve compressions such as carpal tunnel and cubital
tunnel syndromes. She also treats arthritic conditions of the elbow,
wrist and hand. She offers treatment of traumatic injuries to the upper
extremity as well as other complex reconstructive surgeries of the arm.
Dr. Wyrick is a member of the American Society for
Surgery of the Hand and the American Association for Hand Surgery. She
has completed research in the areas of brachial plexus surgery and
distal radius fractures. She has authored several textbook chapters on
arthritic conditions of the upper extremity and has lectured at local,
state and regional meetings on various topics related to upper extremity
surgery.

John L. Wilson, M.D.
Instructor of Orthopaedics
General Orthopaedic Surgery
Appointment: 2009
Dr. Wilson has joined the Department of Orthopaedics as an
instructor. After almost two years of retirement, he missed treating patients
and has joined the team at UAMS to triage patients with a variety of orthopaedic
problems. Dr. Wilson went to medical school at UAMS, did his internship at
Indiana University School of Medicine at Marion County General Hospital, then
returned to UAMS for his residency, and is board certified in orthopaedic
surgery. He then went to practice at Ortho Arkansas where he worked for 38
years until he retired in February 2007. Dr. Wilson is an instrument rated
pilot with
over 5,000 flight hours, volunteers at the Arts Center, serves on two of UALR's
Boards, and still plays basketball three mornings a week.

Mark Bailey, M.D.
Instructor of Orthopaedics
General Orthopaedic Surgery
Appointment: 2011
Dr. Mark Bailey, M.D., has joined the Department of
Orthopaedic Surgery as an Instructor in general orthopaedic surgery. Dr. Bailey
received his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
in 2006. He completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at UAMS in 2011.

Shahryar Ahmadi, MD, FRCSC
Assistant Professor
Shoulder and Elbow Section
Appointment: 2011
Dr. Ahmadi has joined
the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery as an Assistant Professor and
Director of the Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Center. He received his
medical degree from the Tehran University of Medicine Sciences in 1994.
Dr. Ahmadi completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the
University of Toronto, Canada in 2010. He completed fellowships in
adult reconstruction and upper extremity at the Mayo Clinic Rochester,
Minnesota this year.
Dr. Ahmadi holds patents for an
arthroscopic surgery device and for a reconstructive surgery device. He
has just completed a book chapter for “Current Management of Shoulder
and Elbow Trauma”

Larry J. Suva, Ph.D.
Professor of Orthopaedics and
Physiology and Biophysics.
Director of the
Center for Orthopaedic Research
Appointment: 2000
Larry Suva is director of
The Center for Orthopaedic Research at UAMS. He is well-known internationally for his research work and has a broad scientific background gathered from years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (Genentech Inc., Merck, GlaxoSmithKline ) as well as 5 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Suva grew up in Melbourne, Australia (playing cricket), and graduated from Swinburne Institute of Technology in 1981. He subsequently completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the
University of Melbourne in 1989.
He relocated to the US in 1989, and is now a permanent resident.
His research interests include the anabolic stimulation of bone formation,
mechanical regulation on bone and cartilage function and the pathogenesis of
breast cancer metastasis to bone. He is currently serves as chair of the
Science Policy Committee of the
American Society for Bone and Mineral
Research (ASBMR)

Meet our John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital Orthopaedics group.
From Left to right:
Ashley Ross, MD, Karen Seale, MD, David Sward, MD, Laurie Hughes, MD, Pramod
Nelluri, MD
Updated 8/1/2011
 |
|