Fox 12 Good Day Living’s Stephanie Kralevich recently visited ROC’s Tualatin location to catch up with Dr. Nathan Orvets.
Dr. Orvets talks about his work treating upper extremity injuries, especially his work with the Tommy John surgery for throwing athletes. Dr. Orvets is now accepting new patients at ROC.
Stephanie Kralevich: ROC stands for Regenerative Orthopedic Center. It’s home to 11 orthopedic surgeons, and today, we are meeting the newest member of the team.
We are here with Dr. Nathan Orvets. What do you specialize in?
Dr. Nathan Orvets: I specialize in shoulder and elbow surgery. Any condition of the upper extremity, from the clavicle, even the sternum, out to beyond the elbow.
Kralevich: What conditions do you treat?
Orvets: I think the most common things I treat are things like clavicle fractures, or rotator cuff tears, or shoulder dislocations.
Kralevich: Tell us about the types of patients you see.
Orvets: Adolescent athletes with throwing injuries to the shoulder and elbow, a little bit older folks with mountain biking and skiing injuries. Workplace injuries. And a lot of more experienced patients with arthritic conditions that just had a lot of pain and suffering, and I’m fortunate in that I can treat them and generally make people a lot better most of the time.
Kralevich: The procedures you perform have come a long way in recent years.
Orvets: So there’s been a lot of advancements in shoulder and elbow surgery. The reverse shoulder replacement, numerous arthroscopic techniques that we can do now that are very minimally invasive, very safe, and very effective as well.
Kralevich: And you perform the Tommy John surgery which not a lot of surgeons can do. What is that procedure?
Orvets: The Tommy John procedure is a procedure for ligament reconstruction of the elbow, and folks that do a lot of overhead throwing sports with the elbow can injure that, kind of, with repetitive use. And it’s been proven to be a great procedure, get people back to sports. Generally, what we do is just rebuild the ligaments on the inside of the elbow which are injured from throwing over and over and over again. Most athletes are able to get back to pitching at a competitive level.
Kralevich: What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
Orvets: Uh, I think the most rewarding part of my job is really simple things, like, you know, being able to provide patients with a procedure that may get rid of the pain they’re having, allow them to sleep better, play with their grandkids, get back to sports, in a relatively short period of time. Usually within, you know, a few months, people are dramatically better and it’s pretty consistent.
Kralevich: To learn more about orthopedic care and recovery at Regenerative Orthopedic Center, visit rocpdx.com.
