Abstract
A world-renowned orthopaedic surgeon, Freddie H. Fu, M.D., has passed away in September 2021. He specialized in sports injuries and had been serving as the chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for more than 22 years.
Upon his death, colleagues, friends and those who knew him all over the world were deeply saddened. He was not just a superstar in sports medicine, but he was a very good father and husband to his family, and friend for life to many of the colleagues who knew him.
Dr Fu was born and raised in Hong Kong, and moved to USA for his higher education at the age of 18. He obtained his undergraduate degrees at Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School before receiving his graduate medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977. After graduation, he settled in Pittsburgh and lived in the city for more than 50 years, becoming a respected person of his society.
He was named as one of the 100 most influential Pittsburghers of the 20th century, Person of the Year and Pittsburgh Man of the Year during his 50 years of residence in the city. The city even named 23 September 2016 ‘Dr Freddie Fu Day’ in his honour. 1
The passing of Dr Fu is tragic for Pittsburghers and his Asia-Pacific colleagues, Hong Kong in particular. Though he became a prominent Pittsburgher, he once said ‘I belong to Hong Kong, I always belong to Hong Kong, my family’s still there and I love Hong Kong’, and he always considered Hong Kong to be his home. 2
Those who met Freddie H. Fu would know that he was a researcher, clinician and educator par excellence. He has countless achievements including ISAKOS presidency (2009–2011), having been honoured with over 260 professional awards, co-authoring 173 book chapters and writing over 675 peer-reviewed articles. Having an h-index of 100, with almost 36,000 citations, he made crucial scientific contributions to the field of sports injury, but he will likely be remembered for his studies on ACL reconstruction, especially the anatomic ACL reconstruction. Since his first in 1981, Dr Fu has carried out over 20,000 knee surgeries – 6000 of them being ACL repairs. 3
In his review article in 2001, he foresaw the future, explaining his perspective on knee ligament surgery and his prediction: ‘In the year 2020, we undoubtedly will have improved biomechanical knowledge, sophisticated biological tools, and user-friendly computer-assisted surgery’. 4 Subsequently, he focused on anatomical reconstruction of ACL by studying the ACL anatomy in foetal specimens, cadavers and in vivo arthroscopic observations, and concluded that ACL consists of two bundles: anteromedial and posterolateral; and a double-bundle ACL reconstruction better restores the knee biomechanics and provides more rotational stability than a single bundle ACL reconstruction. 5 Through his research, the double-bundle ACL reconstruction became widely adopted around the world.
Dr Fu’s research has had major impact on our understanding of ACL anatomy and kinematics, and has helped to find better techniques to reconstruct an injured ACL. Researchers sought better ways to anatomically create femoral tunnels 6 and compared non-anatomic and anatomic techniques to optimally reconstruct the ACL.7,8
A recent study titled ‘The Top 100 Most Cited Articles on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Bibliometric Analysis’ in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that the most prolific co-author and first author was Freddie H. Fu, and the most productive institution was the University of Pittsburgh. 9 Another study showed that the top publishing author on the ACL was Freddie H. Fu, who published 378 articles (as of 2018). 10
On anatomic ACL reconstruction, he once said, ‘The knee, and the ACL, is not a one-size-fits-all situation’. ‘It is like fingerprints and if you treat them all the same then you miss out on important details’. He emphasized on the importance of clinical experience and objectivity.
As a teacher and mentor, he has provided invaluable opportunities for surgeons all over the Asia to train under him, raising the standard of sports-related surgery in the region. He continued to advance the field by his appearance in many major scientific conferences in various capacities – plenary/keynote speaker, faculty and surgical demonstrator. Additionally, he was recipient of many visiting professorships in leading institutions of the Asia-Pacific region.
He will be remembered as a teacher, surgeon, scientist and friend. Thank you for your efforts, Dr Fu; we now know much more about ACL than 30 years ago.
