This manual presents the operations most often performed by surgeons at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic (Inglewood, California, 90301) in treating sports injuries. These operations constitute a complete series of basic surgical procedures for the orthopaedist. In its step-by-step drawings, the manual guides surgeons through the operative techniques of specific procedures. It also pro vides what is equally important for practitioners: the protocols for postopera tive care of patients, including the rehabilitation of those who have-and have not-had to undergo surgery. It must also be said that this manual is not a be-all and end-all of surgical interventions and rehabilitative programs for athletes, amateur or professional, who sustain injuries on the playing field. That elusive goal can only be reached by practitioners who attend strictly to all the diagnostic detail available, who select carefully those patients most likely to benefit from their attention and care, and who share with other practitioners their experience and expertise. As far as diagnosis is concerned, there has been a great improvement in the recent past in both noninvasive and invasive procedures that help to estab lish specific diagnoses and to determine which patients will be served best by a given operation. These new diagnostic tools include the arthrogram in conjunction with the tomogram and the CT scan; the CT scan itself; the arthroscope; and, most recently, the Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine.
