ANDOVER — When orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Sigman of Andover headed to China earlier this month he expected his counterparts in the People's Republic to be a bit behind the times.
He had no idea.
"They (weren't) doing any shoulder work of any kind in the entire country," Sigman said. "If you hurt your shoulder in China, you couldn't reach for a can of beans."
Sigman, who specializes in sports medicine and minimally invasive surgery of the knee and shoulder, went to Beijing to help doctors there prepare for the Summer Olympics in August. The trip was sponsored by Depuy Mitek Inc., a developer and manufacturer of orthopedic sports medicine products, and a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
"We really didn't appreciate the magnitude of what we were trying to accomplish until we got over there. We knew they weren't very good around the shoulder. What we didn't know was that they just didn't have a lot of experience, they had zero experience."
For example, there were only 500 shoulder surgeries performed in China last year. In the same time, Sigman himself performed more than 350.
Along with Drs. Timothy Kremchek, team physician for the Cincinnati Reds; Andrew Chen, team physician of the U.S. Ski Team; and David Weinstein, head physician for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Sigman set out to start teaching the process of shoulder medicine in a country where most shoulder injuries are treated with a combination of acupuncture and herbal medication.
"They had the video equipment, but not the instruments," said Sigman, who along with his American colleagues, began a series of lectures, video presentations, cadaver demonstrations and surgical labs for the Chinese doctors. "We were helping to train the first generation of Chinese shoulder surgeons."
Sigman considers his time with the Chinese surgeons "the highlight of my professional career."
And when it came to Beijing itself, the surprises kept coming.
"I expected a drab city with people on bikes," Sigman said, but that was not the case.
"People are dressed in colorful clothing and jeans," Sigman said of the city of 16 million people. "They all have cell phones and access to the Internet. There's been an explosion of construction in China in the past 15 years. What you're seeing in Beijing is a lot of the newer stuff. All these high-rises and these advanced highway systems there. It's more of a 21st century city."
About the only complaint Sigman had was with the traffic. "The traffic there makes L.A. traffic look benign."
During a farewell dinner Sigman said he gave a toast.
"I stood up at the end of the night and told all the doctors at the table. 'I look forward to coming back in five years so I can learn shoulder surgery from you."'
