Dr. Tania Ferguson

After training with two of the world's foremost experts in open hip surgery, Drs. Joel Matta and Jeffrey Mast, Dr. Ferguson became celebrated worldwide for her surgical skill and academic contributions to pelvis and acetabular fracture surgery and hip preservation surgery (periacetabular osteotomy and surgical hip dislocation). She has also played a pivotal role in the advancement of anterior approach total hip replacement in the United States.

Her practice rests on a deep understanding of hip and pelvis anatomy, and of the mechanical relationship between the femur and the acetabulum (socket). That mastery comes from more than a decade as Director of Pelvic and Acetabular Fracture Surgery at the University of California, Davis, where her focus on severe injuries to the pelvis, acetabulum and femur taught her every nuance of the anatomy.

Dr. Ferguson's understanding of how the hip and pelvis fit together is the foundation of her hip preservation practice. It lets her plan and carry out reorientation osteotomies precisely, and her outcomes with periacetabular osteotomy (PAO), surgical hip dislocation and femoral osteotomies for hip dysplasia and developmental abnormalities are well recognized.

She completed fellowship training with Dr. Jeffrey Mast, one of the founders of PAO surgery. Two of her patients' stories:

• A 22-year-old woman with acetabular dysplasia and eight months of hip pain had a successful PAO with labral repair and femoral head recontouring.
• A 19-year-old woman with acetabular dysplasia, proximal femoral abnormalities and a leg deformity had a PAO, femoral osteotomy and labral repair. Twelve years later she is a nurse, with no limp and no hip pain.

After her fellowship year with Dr. Joel Matta in 2004, Dr. Ferguson made the anterior approach her only approach for elective hip replacement, from the start of her practice. Her research, publications and techniques helped expand the approach to fractures of the hip and acetabulum, and she teaches it to surgeons worldwide.

She has chaired the Education Committee of the Anterior Hip Foundation, a collaborative group of orthopaedic surgeons working to improve patient care, and trains residents, fellows and surgeons learning the procedure. Many of her patients have outpatient surgery and return to unlimited activity.

Traveling the world as an educator in hip surgery, she has reached millions of patients by teaching surgeons complex hip techniques. Her publications, book chapters and technique videos extend that reach, and she uses the same teaching skill to help her own patients understand complex hip disorders.

Dr. Ferguson has long served as faculty with the AO Foundation, and is the first elected woman trustee of the international organization, which works to improve the care of musculoskeletal disorders around the world. Her greatest pride is her surgical outcomes and her patients' satisfaction; she counts her work with the AO among the most important pillars of her career.