Pacific Palisades resident Dr. Anthony Scaduto has been named president and CEO of Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital (LAOH) in downtown L.A. He is also a surgeon at Renee and Meyer Lush Children’s Clinic on Arizona Avenue in Santa Monica, which is operated by LAOH. LAOH partnered with UCLA in opening the new Santa Monica Hospital. ’Our Westside practice is much different because we see healthy kids with sports-related injuries,’ Scaduto told the Palisadian-Post. ‘Downtown we see extremely complicated cases with lots of health problems.’ The orthopedist said there are two major skeletal issues affecting today’s youth. One is obesity, related to inactivity, in which children go from a classroom to the sofa and video games. The other relates to children who play a sport year-round and rarely take a break. Both inactivity and overactivity can have long-term detrimental effects on the bones. ’More than a third of the patients I see in the children’s clinic are because of sports-related injuries,’ said Scaduto, who in addition to his new administrative duties, continues to conduct research, write and publish articles, see patients and perform surgery. ‘Children should stay away from year-round, single-sport activities and whenever possible play a variety of sports.’ Scaduto acknowledges that some coaches play off parental fears about holding a child back by telling them their child will be left behind or replaced if the youth takes a break to play another sport. Ironically, the single-sport child may ultimately be forced to stop playing for a period while a repetitive stress injury heals. The doctor is also worried about the epidemic of childhood obesity because, in addition to potential blood-pressure problems and diabetes, the extra weight can have severe impact on the leg bones. One increasingly common injury, Scaduto says, is a slipped capital femoral epiphysis, which means that because of the extra weight, the round portion of the hip separates from the shaft of the thighbone. ‘It’s like a scoop of ice cream shoved off the cone,’ he said. Obese children are also susceptible to Blout’s disease, which affects the growth plate just below the knee and the legs start to become bow-legged. Scaduto is also a recognized specialist for scoliosis (curvature of the spine), which has three causes: congenital, neuromuscular (which is associated with muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy) and idiopathic, the most common, which develops for no known reason. Many pediatricians check the curve of the spine in pre-teens and teens and if a problem is noticed, that patient is sent to an orthopedist. If surgery is required, Scaduto said, the patient can be out of the hospital and riding a bike within six weeks. Years ago after a scoliosis operation, teens were put in body casts for a long period of time. ’The technique has evolved considerably over the past 10 to 15 years,’ said Scaduto, noting that his staff tries to rehabilitate kids as quickly as possible to prevent long hospital stays. Scaduto, who grew up in Claremont, the son of a police officer and teacher, was initially a UCLA communications major before changing his career path after his sophomore year. ’I needed a job that was near campus,’ said Scaduto. ‘I started working at the Children’s Amputee and Prosthetic Project. ’I looked forward to going because the kids were remarkable in their ability to overcome their disability. It was inspirational.’ While attending UCLA Medical School, he found himself drawn to orthopedics because ‘patients had problems that were fixable and with feet, spine, hips, arms and legs, there was a wide variety of problems that kept it interesting. ‘There is also a satisfaction that with the treatment we provide we can improve the quality of a child’s life and in some cases his/her life span,’ Scaduto said. He and his wife Lynn, a lawyer who works as an assistant U.S. Attorney, have two children: Toby (6), who attends Marquez, and Casey (4), who attends a Santa Monica preschool. Scaduto also helps coach his son’s basketball team at the Palisades Recreation Center. The family moved here from La Ca’ada in 2009, so that the doctor could be closer to work. Initially, he was based in the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital downtown, but when the hospital partnered with UCLA (which purchased Santa Monica Hospital), a clinic was opened on the Westside as well. Visit orthoHospital.org or call (310) 395-4814.
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