Address
1504 S.E. 28th
Bentonville, AR 72712
Office Hours
Mon-Thurs 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Office Number
479-273-1111
Fax Number
844-286-8321
Dr. Christopher Dougherty
An Official Team Physician for the Kansas City Royals
The Official Team Physician for the Arkansas Naturals
A recognized innovator, Dr. Dougherty has vast experience in cutting edge orthobiologic and surgical hip repair options, meniscus tear treatment, and minimally-invasive shoulder surgery.
With leadership and educational roles in national sports medicine and educational organizations, every patient benefits from Dr. Dougherty’s major league approach to your care and recovery.
Advocating for improved patient safety and access to treatment, Dr. Dougherty offers video-based exercises designed to prevent injuries and hit your recovery out of the ballpark.
From his Northwest Arkansas base, Dr. Dougherty has pioneered surgical procedures and developed the most advanced rehab protocols in the state. His patented procedures and orthotics along with published articles assist surgeons in performing advanced surgeries for patients worldwide.
Dedicated to the most comprehensive and advanced hip surgeries, the Arkansas Hip Institute is comprised of Dr. Christopher Dougherty and Dr. Mike Maline. Dr. Dougherty has performed over 2,000 hip procedures and Dr. Maline has been performing anterior total hips for 11 years.
The Arkansas Hip Institute is proud to offer the following services: Stem Cell Treatments, Hip Arthroscopies, Anterior Total Hip Replacements, Total Hip Replacements, and Out-Patient Total Hip Replacements.
Orthobiologics is one of the cutting edge techniques used by Dr. Dougherty to help injuries heal . Using substances found naturally in your body – such as cells, tissues, growth factors or blood components like plasma cells – these treatments address recover of broken bones and injured muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Proactive pre- and post-surgery videos to ensure you continue your active lifestyle.
Watch the rest of my videos HERE.
The human ankle is used for up-and-down movement of the foot.
Ankle injuries can severely impair your ability to walk, run and jump.
Three bones make up the ankle:
The subtalar joint sits below the ankle joint, and provides side-to-side motion of the foot. Numerous ligaments surround your ankle and joints, binding the bones of the leg to each other and to those of your foot.
Did you know that men injure their Achilles tendons 20 times more often than women? Male athletes should be especially diligent in performing exercises that strengthen the ankle. Ankle arthroscopy is a minimally invasive way to inspect and treat ankle conditions and injuries.
Methods used in knee cartilage restoration:
A) Arthroscopic debridement and microfracture: In a patient who has an isolated focal chondral defect, the physician can insert a small camera to locate the damaged tissue and debride the torn areas away. They then make small holes in the bone. This is called a “microfracture”. The purpose of the microfracture is to allow these holes to serve as channels allowing the bone marrow cells to propagate through the channels to the hole. These bone marrow cells will then form a cartilage covering that resembles normal articular cartilage.
B) Osteochondral Autograft: In this technique, the surgeon removes a piece of cartilage from a portion of the knee that does not bear weight and transfers the plug to a damaged portion in the knee. This is very similar to a hair plug transfer. This has excellent results in full thickness cartilage defects in areas less than 2 square centimeters.
C) Allograft Reconstruction: If there is a focal defect larger than 2 square centimeters, that is too large for an osteochondral autograft, then an allograft reconstruction is an excellent option. The surgeons will implant a piece of freshly donated cartilage and bone from a cadaver into the patient’s bone. The donated cartilage and bone will grow into the patient’s bone as it were the patient’s own. This has excellent results for patient who have large defects.
D) Autologous Chondrocyte Implantations: The autologous chondrocyte implantation is also known as the Carticel procedure. This was developed in Sweden over 20 years ago. It was approved by the FDA in 1995. This is the most exciting area of cartilage restoration to date. This procedure, as a result of bio-technology, uses the patient’s own cartilage to restore defects in the joint surface. This is a 2 stage procedure. In the first stage, the surgeon harvests a few small samples of cartilage cells from a portion of the knee that is non-weight bearing. The cells are then placed into a sterile test tube and sent to a laboratory where through advanced culturing techniques, the cell numbers increase from a few hundred thousand cells to over 12 million cells. The surgeon then returns at a later date and re-implants these cells into the knee joint through a second, open operative procedure. Then, a soft tissue flap is sewn over the defect. The cells are placed into the defect where they begin to grow and multiply. The uniqueness of this procedure is that the cells which fill the defect are the patient’s own cartilaginous cells and if heal as planned, they return to almost a pre-injury status, reestablishing the articular cartilage.
Dr. Dougherty is a clinical investigator for cartilage transplant research, and has been at the forefront of developing new and better procedures for the repair of knee injuries.
People of all ages experience hip injuries, although there is much greater
risk for those children and young adults who play sports. Hip injuries are also
found in senior citizens, who are prone to falling due to decreased bone
density and joint elasticity, or even osteoporosis.
Dr. Dougherty is one of the nation’s leading arthroscopic hip surgeons. He
has worked closely with the medical device industry to develop new
implants and procedures for the treatment of hip conditions and injuries.
That a click or sharp, shooting pain in the hip experienced while walking may be a sign of a condition called snapping hip?
Most common in girls, this condition frequently goes untreated for very long periods of time, but can be painful when aggravated by injury. It is caused when the movement of tendons over the bones of the hip is temporarily stopped or slowed by contact with the bone, creating a snapping sensation. It is most common in young athletes, especially girls, and is not noticeable in x-rays. If you or your child experience a snapping sensation in the hip during motion and x-rays are negative, it is best to be checked for snapping hip syndrome.
Approximately 7.5 million people each year visit their doctor for shoulder problems. Over 2 million of those visits consist of shoulder injuries. The shoulder is a complex joint with many moving parts. Shoulder injuries are caused by activities that involve excessive, overhead motion. Common sports that involve this type of movement include swimming, tennis, baseball, or weightlifting. Shoulder injuries can also occur from other activities, such as hanging curtains, installing drywall, or gardening. A small injury to one bone, muscle or tendon can affect the way we use the whole joint, leading to further injury. It’s important to respond quickly to shoulder pain and fix the problem immediately.
Dr. Dougherty uses minimally invasive wrist pain diagnosis and wrist pain treatment techniques for injuries and conditions of the wrist, leading to less
pain, shorter recovery times and greater mobility during recovery.
Chronic wrist pain isn’t always arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome?
The cartilage of the wrist can become worn or torn just like that of the knee, and cartilage generally heals more slowly than other tissues of the body because it does not contain blood vessels. Dr. Dougherty is one of the foremost cartilage surgeons in the United States, and has developed reliable methods for diagnosing cartilage injuries in the wrist.
