ISAKOS 2025 Congress Faculty

Volker Musahl, MD, Prof.

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania UNITED STATES

Volker Musahl, MD, is Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania Professor, and Chief Sports Medicine Medical Director, International Sports Medicine, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, Program Director of the Sports Medicine fellowship program, and associate head team physician for the University of Pittsburgh Football team. Prof. Musahl has received numerous honors and awards and has published over 360 peer reviewed publications. He is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy (KSSTA). His research interests are broad, but his main focus is on the clinical and basic science of knee and shoulder injuries in athletes. He serves as Co-Director of the Orthopaedic Robotics Laboratory, a state-of-the-art robotics laboratory which is the first of its kind in the United States. His research interests include clinical outcomes research and biomechanics of the knee and shoulder. He is currently Co-Principal Investigator for two large scale multi-center randomized control trials, on knee ligament injuries. The STABILITY II trial funded by the NIH (National Institute of Health). The project aims to determine if graft type (QT, BPTB, i.e., Quadriceps tendon or Patella tendon) with or without a lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) affects the rate of graft failure two years after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL-R), patient-reported outcomes, donor site morbidity, complications and adverse outcomes, and Cost-effectiveness of ACLR and LET. He is Co-Principal Investigator of the STAR (Surgical Timing and Rehabilitation) for MLKIs). The purpose of this study is to investigate effects of timing of surgery (early vs. delayed) and timing of post-operative rehabilitation (early vs. delayed) for the treatment of military personnel and civilians that sustain a multiple ligament knee injury. This is a department of defense (DOD) study. He is also Co-Investigator for the POETT trial (Predicting the Outcome of Exercise Therapy for Treatment of Rotator Cuff Tears). This study is an NIH grant. This trial aims to develop diagnostic methods to allow surgeons to determine whether physical therapy or surgery is the most effective initial treatment of rotator cuff tears.