Damir Hudetz, M.D., Ph.D

Dr. Hudetz is the Chairman of the Departmentof Orthopaedic Surgery at St. Catherine’s Hospital.

He graduated from the School of Medicine,University of Zagreb, and continued with his internship and residency inorthopaedic surgery at the University Hospital for Trauma Surgery, where he continued to work as an orthopaedic surgeon from 2005. He received a Swiss government fellowship in 2002 and continued his residency in Basel, where he simultaneously worked on scientific projects. In 2009, he defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Effect on Biofilm Production on Staphylococcal Infection Around Titanium and Steel Implants” at the University of Zagreb, School of Medicine. As a fellow ofthe Swiss ProMotio Foundation, he participated in the research of the biomechanical properties of cartilage tissue in the Laboratory for Orthopedic Biomechanics, University of Basel. He further improved his clinical knowledgeas a fellow at the university orthopedic departments in San Antonio, Texas and Heidelberg, Germany.

Dr. Hudetz is an expert in knee preserving and replacement surgery, including arthroscopic ACL reconstruction. He is also trained in total joint replacement of the hip and knee, including difficult primary and revision cases. On the cutting edge of treatment not only with arthroscopy, he provides advanced biologic treatments individualized for specific patient such as osteotomies, cartilage repair, meniscus transplantations as well as stem cells therapy.

He was a member of the infectious disease research group led by Professor Regine Landman in Basel, conducting research inthe field of susceptibility to staphylococcal infection of different implant materials. At the Department of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery of Bruderholz Hospital in Basel, he participated in a clinical trial of long term results of surgically treated knee dislocations. Since 2011, he has participated in the FP-7 European Union Bio-Comet scientific project on cartilage regeneration and continues his work through Horizon 2020 project of cartilage repair.

He lectures at the medical schools of the Zagreb, Osijek and Split Universities and at the Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka. In 2012, he got the position of an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Osijek.

He is the author and co-author of many scientific papers and an author of a few chapters in professional books.

He is a member of the Croatian Medical Chamber, Croatian Orthopedic Society, Croatian Trauma Society, Croatian Orthopedic and Traumatology Surgeons Association, European Society of Sports Traumatology Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA), European Federation of National Associations of Orthopedics and Traumatology (EFFORT), Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Traumatologie (SICOT) and an invited member of the ACL study group. In 2007 due to his professional and scientific accomplishments he was pronounced the youngest honorary member.

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