Director: Thay Q. Lee, Ph.D.
Dr. Lee established the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory in 1989 with support from William C. Kim, MD, Sanford H. Anzel, MD and M. Mark Hoffer, MD. The laboratory is located at the VA Healthcare System in Long Beach, California and covers over 2,000 square feet of laboratory space including the shoulder, knee, and joint laboratories and a fully equipped machine shop.
The research performed at the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory focuses on orthopaedic injury mechanisms and surgical repairs primarily of the shoulder, elbow, knee and spine. The four labs include several custom testing systems for shoulder, knee, elbow and spine research as well as three material testing frames. The labs are also equipped with multiple motion analysis devices including a Microscribe 3DLX (Immersion Corp, San Jose, CA), Polhemus FASTRAK (Polhemus, Colchester, VT), Optotrak (Northern Digital Inc, Ontario, Canada), and WINAna- lyze (Mikromak Service, Berlin, Germany) motion analysis software and also a Tekscan pressure measurement system (Tekscan Inc, South Boston, MA) for measuring joint contact area and pressure.
Shoulder
Injury mechanisms including instability, dislocation, rotator cuff tear, and evaluation of surgical repairs open and arthroscopic as well as resurfacing and arthroplasty
Knee
Sports medicine injuries including tibial rotation and knee hyperextension, ACL reconstruction, TKA studies focusing on improving surgical technique, joint line position, effect of patella position on joint gap, and kneeling following TKA
Elbow
Stability studies, effects of muscles on stability, UCL reconstruction, distal humerus fractures, kinematics and injury patterns in extension
Spine
Stability in bending, flexion-extension and axial rotation