Biography

A nationally renowned sports medicine expert, Dr. W. Dilworth Cannon is part of the UCSF Sports Medicine Service. Cannon has been involved in numerous committees through the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the Arthroscopy Association of North America to enhance education opportunities in orthopedic surgery. Currently, he is collaborating on designing a virtual knee with the University of Colorado. This project could save time and funds training doctors, and these savings eventually could be passed along to the patient. Cannon also is interested in researching treatment of articular cartilage injury and disease.

He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his medical training from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Cannon completed an internship and surgical residency at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York before serving as a research associate at the National Institutes of Health. He then completed his orthopedic residency at New York Orthopedic Hospital before joining UCSF in 1972. Cannon is an active member of many organizations, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of major publications.

Career

• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco 2001 - Present: Co-Director, Sports Medicine Service 1991 - Present: Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery 1988-2001: Chief, Sports Medicine Service 1982-1987: Co-Director, Sports Medicine Clinic 1988-1991: Clinical Professor 1980-1988: Associate Clinical Professor 1973: Associate Clinical Professor 1972-1973: Clinical Instructor
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Davies Medical Center, San Francisco 1991 - Present: Courtesy Staff 1972-1991: Active Staff 1986-1989: Chairman 1979-1981, 1985: Vice-Chairman
• Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Francisco 1972-1991: Active Staff 1972-1991: Chief, Knee Service 1975: Chief, Orthopaedic Physicians' Assistants Training Program

Education

• 1959: BS,Yale University, New Haven, CT
• 1963: MD Columbia College of P&S, New York, NY
• 1963 - 1965: Internship & Surgical Residency, St. Vincent's Hospital, New York, NY
• 1967: Research Associate, National Institutes of Health
• 1967 - 1970: Orthopaedic Residency, New York Orthopaedic Hospital, New York, NY

Research

A current area of major interest is the treatment of articular cartilage injury and disease. There are a number of treatments available including arthroscopic cleanup (debridement), abrasion arthroplasty (burring a thin layer of bone off at the base of the defect to promote fibrocartilage ingrowth to repair the defect), microfracture (creating small holes in the bone to stimulate fibrocartilage ingroth), and autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). ACI is considered to have the greatest potential to grow true articular cartilage in the defects, but is expensive, requiring an arthroscopic procedure to harvest a small amount of cartilage from an unimportant area of the joint. It is sent to Boston where Genzyme Tissue Repair isolates and grows the cells in tissue culture. They can be frozen until the time of a second surgery when the cells are implanted in the defect under a periosteal (bone lining tissue) patch in an open surgical technique. Candidates for this technique are few and have to be carefully evaluated. The results of treatment of single defects at the end of the thigh bone (femoral condyles) has been over 80% successful in a large number of patients reported on in the literature. Dr. Lars Peterson in Sweden developed the technique in 1987. Not all insurance carriers are authorizing the technique, though. Other techniques that have recently been under investigation are osteochondral autograft transplantation surgery (OATS), and mosaicplasty (a variation of the same technique). These techniques involve taking dowel grafts of articular cartilage with underlying bone from a non-weight bearing portion of the knee joint and transplanting them into the defect.

Publications

• Cannon WD, Webber SD: Knee ligaments injury in a child. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Orthopaedic Grand Rounds on CD-ROM. Peer reviewed by the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Connecticut, 1998.
• Costouros, J.G., Raineri, G.R., Cannon, W.D.: Return of motion after simultaneous repair of displaced bucket-handle meniscal tears and anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Arthroscopy 15:192-196, 1999.

Book Chapters:

• Van der Reis, W., Cannon, W.D.: Arthroscopic meniscal repair using the inside-out technique. In: Cannon, W.D. and DeHaven, K.E. (eds.). Meniscus Repair and Replacement. Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1999. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Cannon, W.D.: Other all inside repair techniques. In: Cannon, W.D. and DeHaven, K.E. (eds.). Meniscus Repair and Replacement. Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1999. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Presentations

• South Lake Tahoe Fracture Clinic, Winter Sport Injury Symposium, South Lake Tahoe
• Revision ACL Surgery:12//99
• American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery 66th Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, 2/99
• Instructional Course Moderator: Arthroscopic Meniscus Repair Inside-Out Technique Including Fibrin Clot.
• Meniscus Arrow Meniscal Repair

Grants and Awards

• 1970-1971, Scholarship for Advanced Study Abroad, New York Academy of Medicine, Bowen-Brooks
• 1970-1971, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, National Institutes of Health
• 1970-1971, Honorary Senior Registrar , Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Institute of Orthopaedics, Stanmore, England

Membership & Committees

• American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery
• American Academy of Sports Physicians
• American Medical Association
• American Orthopaedic Association
• American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
• American Athletic Trainers Association
• Arthroscopy Association of North America
• California Academy of Medicine
• California Medical Association
• International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery & Orthopaedic Sports Medicine
• International Society of the Knee
• National Orthopaedic Education Society
• Orthopaedic Research Society

Editorial Boards

• Instructional Course Lectures, Vol. 47, AAOS
• Meniscus Repair, AAOS
• Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review, Lippencott-Raven Press