Whether you’re a professional or a recreational athlete, you want the best possible outcome when seeking treatment for joint deterioration or injury.

Orthopaedic surgeon Bashir Zikria has returned to Johns Hopkins’ Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., after three years in Doha, Qatar, where he was the chief of surgery at the Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital and treated elite athletes, including the players of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

His experience helped him develop and refine techniques for joint preservation and ACL repairs that he learned while working with the top European orthopaedic surgeons from FIFA. 

An athlete himself, Zikria played football in high school and has had six knee surgeries for sports-related injuries, including tearing a patellar tendon while playing basketball with Johns Hopkins residents. 

His interest in orthopaedic surgery grew out of his own experience with surgery for a lateral ligament tear, which did not heal correctly and required a second operation. “That underscored the importance of doing it right,” he says.

Individualized Approach to ACL Reconstruction

The standard for FIFA athletes in ACL reconstruction is extra-articular augmentation of the ACL which decreases the rate of re-tear, he says, from about 12% to about 3%. This advance is crucial for both athletes and nonathletes because repeated ACL tears can lead to injuries to the meniscus and cartilage, potentially causing degenerative joint disease.

The procedure involves augmentation of the ACL with a graft, and tightening the outside of the knee along with the ACL, to provide more support for the ligament.

Zikria uses a refined technique, developed at Aspetar during his time as chief of surgery there, which attaches the ACL augmentation without the need for anchors. “There are many different ways reconstruct or repair an ACL, and for every person, it’s a little different,” he says. “What I do is more of a custom ACL reconstruction, based on the individual, because everyone’s anatomy is slightly different.”

Protecting Joints

Zikria says he also relies on osteotomy, a procedure during which bones are broken and realigned to shift weight away from damaged joints. He recommends the procedure for people who have osteoarthritis and are younger than age 50, and therefore not good candidates for knee replacements, he says. 

“We would see a lot of people between 40 and 50 with osteoarthritis,” he says. “Instead of giving them knee replacements, we would perform surgeries to preserve their joints.” Studies find that almost a third of patients under age 55 who get knee replacements are not satisfied with the procedure, Zikria notes. 

Individualized Care for Each Patient

While in Qatar, Zikria performed hundreds of surgeries each year on athletes and high-level government officials.

Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup. With so much money and national pride at stake, the injuries and treatments sometimes were national or even international news. Zikria often heard from top Qatar officials who wanted to know how a player was doing and if every effort was being made to get that player back on the field.

Zikria is clear that he treats all patients the same, no matter how large their paychecks or how many fans are following their progress.

When making treatment recommendations, he weighs the short-term and long-term goals, as well as the patient’s age and the extent of the injuries. For some professional athletes, that could mean putting off surgery and managing symptoms in order to prolong a career.

Zikria is the director of the Johns Hopkins Sports Medicine Arthroscopy Lab in the Greater Washington area. He earned his medical degree from the Drexel University College of Medicine and completed his residency at Lenox Hill Hospital. He also did a fellowship in sports medicine with the UHZ Sports Medicine Institute. From 2008 to 2019, he was a team physician for the Baltimore Orioles.

Now back in Washington, Zikria is again seeing patients.

See Zikria’s profile to learn more. For more information about Johns Hopkins Orthopaedics in the Greater Washington area, visit the regional website at hopkinsmedicine.org/ortho/dc.