Dr, Dean Taylor, center, examines a sports medicine patient with medical student Medical student Robert Floyd, left, and medical resident Cliff Willimon. Photo credit: Megan Morr

Durham, NC - Sports-related injuries can sideline the best Duke basketball players as they shoot for the thrill of victory and try to avoid the agony of defeat -- and de ankles, de knees and de shoulders.

As the new head physician for the men's basketball team, Dr. Dean Taylor's job is to help spare players from the injuries that can come with overuse, misuse or just plain hard playing, as well as to get players who suffer an injury back to peak performance as soon as possible.

His guiding priority, he said, is doing what's right for the student-athletes' long-term health.

"In the college setting, most students are playing for the short term, and the game won't be their livelihood, so it's important that we don't sacrifice their physical well-being for the sake of the game," he said.

But Taylor said he understands the interest in keeping players in the game. It's a challenge to balance priorities, and the students and coaches depend on Taylor and his medical team to help them with these issues.

Taylor is no stranger to college athletics, having been the head team physician at West Point for 10 years before returning to Duke in July. He compares the annual Army versus Navy football game, which annually attracts a national TV audience as well as crowds in excess of 90,000, to the Duke-UNC basketball rivalry in its competitive spirit and hype.

And he vividly recalls traveling with the Duke men's basketball team as a Duke orthopedic surgery resident when the team made its way to the Final Four in 1990.

In keeping basketball players healthy and in their best physical shape, Taylor works with a team of athletic trainers, physical therapists, primary care sports medicine physicians and orthopedic surgeons.

Drawing on technology from the Krzyzewski "K lab," Taylor and his crew measure at the beginning of the season each player's physiologic parameters that could hint at potential trouble on the court.

"In the lab we can measure the athlete's aerobic and anaerobic capacity," Taylor said. "The results provide a picture of the player's physical conditioning. If the player isn't coming into the season in appropriate condition, we work toward improving his physiologic parameters."

Assessing the players' condition in advance can help prevent common injuries to their shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles, he said.

When injuries do occur in a player's shoulder, for example, Taylor and his medical team work to maintain "stability" within the joint. In simple terms, shoulder instability occurs when the major shoulder bone, the humerus, slips out of its socket.

In knees, the most common injury is a torn anterior cruciate ligament -- the familiar ACL -- which connects and stabilizes the bones of the knee joint.

Taylor specializes in performing "minimally invasive" arthroscopic surgery of the shoulder and knee to correct instability and damage to tendons, ligaments and cartilage. In this process, surgeons make several small incisions in the affected area, inserting a camera in one incision and their surgical tools in the other incisions. The camera projects a large image of the injured area, giving the surgeons a picture that can help them wield their tools precisely to repair the damaged tissues.

Medical technology advances have dramatically cut recuperation times for serious injuries. "The arthroscopic technique allows us to put the anatomy back as closely as we can to its original state, while giving the student more rapid rehabilitation and recovery," he said. "It's really exciting to see the advances in orthopedic surgery in recent years."

Taylor said he is enjoying the opportunities to conduct research and provide medical care at Duke. In one difference from his previous 24 years as a military physician, he added, this is the first time he's had to navigate the complex world of reimbursement for medical care by third-party payers.

Among Taylor's research interests is cartilage restoration. In this process, physicians insert a collagen matrix -- a material akin to a sponge -- into the damaged cartilage to give structure to the tissues while the collagen cells repair the damaged tissue, he said.

In studies of elderly patients or patients who have experienced a traumatic injury, Taylor will gauge the ability of anabolic steroid agents to enhance healing and limit muscle atrophy following orthopedic surgery, when the patients are still bedridden. In laboratory studies, he will analyze how bone and ligaments respond to such anabolic agents.

"There is a tradition of excellence in Duke orthopedics, and I'm glad to be returning home to be a part of that," Taylor said.