Gary A. Levengood, MD
Gary A. Levengood, M.D., Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and Founder of Sports Medicine South L.L.C, has been practicing for nearly 20 years offering the most advanced, orthopedic treatments to help restore his patient’s natural mobility. In an effort to achieve superior results, Dr. Levengood offers customized knee resurfacing implants designed uniquely for each patient’s anatomy, decreasing the amount of bone removal and pain after surgery.
Dr. Levengood has performed more than 1,000 total knee replacements (TKRs), but believes that it’s not the only option for people suffering from knee pain. Since TKRs only come in a set of 5-6 pre-determined sizes for patients, physicians must fit the patient’s knee to the implant. A traditional TKR also requires complete removal of the ends of the femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin bone), often including one or both of the ACL and PCL. This can result in a painful procedure and knee kinematics that can feel very different than the native kinematics of the patient, something that many physicians will hear from patients when they talk about how it feels.
Dr. Levengood provides counsel to each of his patients based on their age, activity level and other mitigating factors in their life. For younger or more active patients with osteoarthritis in just a part of their knee, he will recommend patient-specific implants that can provide patients with a less invasive, bone-sparing alternative to TKR surgery. Dr. Levengood has regularly prescribed an advanced line of patient-specific implants developed by ConforMIS since last year. He has helped to bring the latest innovation, the iDuo® G2, to market by participating in the early evaluations of the implant by a limited group of surgeons prior to broad commercial release.
Personalized partial knee implants are designed to the exact shape and size of a patient’s knee preserving far more bone and tissue than a standard knee replacement and helping to maintain a more natural feeling knee. Because they are more minimally invasive, treating only the diseased compartments, they can also preserve all ligaments, an important driver of knee kinematics.
The iDuo G2 is a personalized bicompartmental knee resurfacing device that preserves more of a patient’s own bone and all of their ligaments for those suffering from knee pain in two out of the three compartments of the knee. ConforMIS also offers a custom, personalized solution unicompartmental device, the iUni® G2, for patients whose arthritic damage is limited to one compartment of the knee. These implants also simplify the surgical procedure, allowing for a less traumatic surgery for the patient and to safeguard further surgeries. Dr. Levengood has performed more than 20 patient-specific implants thus far, and says his patients are happy with the end results.
Dr. Levengood’s specialties include arthroscopic surgery, sports medicine, and joint arthroplasty. In addition, he supports the local community by serving as Team Physician for Brookwood High School, Orthopedic Consultant for Loganville High School, and Medical Director of Gwinnett Gymnastics Center. He has traveled internationally with the U-17 national men’s soccer team as their physician.
Dr. Levengood is the current Team Physician of the Georgia Force, a Gwinnett arena football team and the Atlanta Silverbacks Soccer team; he is also the Medical Director for the Georgia State Soccer Association’s Olympic Development program and is Chief of Orthopedics at Gwinnett Medical Center. Formerly, he served as the Team Physician for the Atlanta Silverbacks from 2000 – 2007.
