Priv.-Doz., Dr. med. Axel Baltzer

The professional credo of Privatdozent Dr. Baltzer, MD, can be summarized as “restore the patient’s joint mobility and active lifestyle”. Through his path of intensive professional training in major hospitals in Germany and the USA, which is quite typical of a highly qualified German physician, Dr. Baltzer came to the idea of creating an orthopedics care facility of a completely novel type. Its main difference from the conventional pattern is a much broader range of conservative treatment options offered alongside with surgery. They make it possible to postpone or even eliminate the need for surgical procedures on the joints, giving the patient a chance to remain active and even do sports.

Sports medicine has always been one of Dr. Baltzer's areas of expertise, particularly because he is an active athlete. Nowadays his Molecular Orthopedics (or, as it is also called, New Orthopedics) Clinic cares for a number of prominent German sportsmen, providing for their fastest recovery after injuries and a longer sports career.

Dr.Baltzer can rely on his clinic's state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities, which include a radiology department equipped, among other things, with computed and magnetic resonance imaging systems, specially designed to examine particular joints, including the small ones. The clinic also features a motion analysis laboratory, which makes it possible to evaluate joint abnormalities in walking. A thorough analysis of such comprehensive data ensures precise decision-making regarding, first and foremost, the appropriateness of non-surgical therapy.

The clinic’s offer of conservative treatment options is much wider than that of the major orthopedic centers in Germany. 20 years ago, Dr. Baltzer and his colleagues were among the first in the country to administer joint injections with biologic substances, which are now spreading far beyond Germany. The method consists in separating the patient's own blood fractions, which, having been processed and injected into the joints, suppress inflammatory processes, literally using the patient’s own resources. Depending on the extent of the disease, certain drugs can be added to blood fractions to enhance the healing effect. Axel Baltzer stays on top of the latest pharmacology innovations and makes uses of them in his injection therapy procedures.

If the array of non-surgical options has been exhausted, Dr. Baltzer gets another chance to demonstrate his indisputable talent in orthopedic surgery. Alongside his engagement at the Clinic for Molecular Orthopedics, he heads the Department for Reconstructive Joint Surgery at the St. Martinus Hospital in Duesseldorf. He mostly performs minimally invasive surgeries on the hips, knee, ankle, elbow and foot. His areas of expertise also include cartilage transplants, foot deformity correction, treatment of bone deformities (impingement) of the hip joint, and joint replacement. Thanks to his intensive involvement in research, Dr. Baltzer is constantly extending his surgical expertise by adding state-of-the-art, minimally invasive techniques which allow for fastest recovery even after major surgeries.

Education

• 1984 1991 Human medicine Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf
• 1997 Specialist examination in orthopedics

Professional Experience

• 1991 - 1993 Internship Orthopedics Department, Düsseldorf University Hospital
• 1993 – 1994 Assistant physician Orthopedics Department, Benrath City Hospital
• 1993 – 1995 Work at Emergency Service Unit, Düsseldorf
• 1994 - 1997 Physician German Association of American Football (AFVD)
• 1994 – 1998 Research assistant physician Orthopedics Department, Düsseldorf University Hospital
• 1997 Research Fellow Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh,USA
• 1998 Visiting Sports Medicine Research Fellow Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, University of Pittsburgh,USA
• 07.1998 – 09.1998 Radiology protection officer Orthopedics Department, Düsseldorf University Hospital
• 1998 - 1999 Senior physician Orthopedics Department, Düsseldorf University Hospital
• 2000 Habilitation, Associate professor
• 2000 - 2002 Work at Department of Molecular Orthopedics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
• 2002 - 2004 Orthopedics specialist Joint Private Practice for Orthopedics and Neurosurgery in Düsseldorf
• since 2004 Co-founder and leading specialist Center for Molecular Orthopedics, Düsseldorf
• 2004 President Inernational Society for Molecular Orthopedics (ISMO)
• since 2009 Team physician Holtwig/Semmler Ladies National Beachvolleyball Team
• Since 2015 Professor University of Seville, Spain

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