Wudbhav (Woody) N. Sankar is a nationally recognized leader in pediatric orthopaedic surgery. He serves as Director of the Young Adult Hip Preservation Program and heads up the Hip Disorders Program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) — programs that care for infants, children and young adults with all types of hip conditions including hip dysplasia (DDH), femoroacetabular impingement, Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, and Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis. In addition, Dr. Sankar’s clinical area of expertise includes spine disorders such as scoliosis, kyphosis and spondylolisthesis, as well as pediatric orthopaedic trauma. Dr. Sankar offers complex second opinions for families from around the region and across the country. If your family has been told they need surgery and you would like an expert second opinion, the CHOP Orthopaedics Nurse Navigator can quickly arrange VIP access, and offer travel, lodging and insurance advice. CHOP’s state-of-the-art facilities, nationally recognized low-complication rates, special recovery pathways, and world-class anesthesia/nursing/therapy make it one of America’s top-ranked destinations for pediatric orthopaedic surgery. Since joining the faculty in 2009, Dr. Sankar has been committed to improving the care of patients with both hip and spinal disorders. As a leading national expert in hip dysplasia, he has pioneered the use of non-traditional braces for infants that fail standard Pavlik harness therapy, developed advanced techniques for evaluating blood flow during and after surgery for dislocated hips, and has optimized care for young children by offering ultrasound within his own clinic (which improves medical decision-making and streamlines appointments). In the area of scoliosis and spinal deformity surgery, Dr. Sankar was an integral member of the development of CHOP’s Scoliosis Rapid Recovery Pathway (RRP) which was designed to maximize pain control and mobilization while minimizing opioid use, allowing most children and teens to go home to their families only two to three days after major spine deformity correction. He also was an early contributor to CHOP’s development of Dedicated Spine Teams, which have optimized team building in the operating room to dramatically reduce surgical times for patients undergoing surgery for scoliosis. Dr. Sankar is one of a small group of surgeons in the country who perform complex hip procedures on adolescent and young adult patients, such as the Ganz periacetabular osteotomy, surgical dislocation of the hip, and head realignments following slipped epiphyses. He is the Associate Director of the International Hip Dysplasia Institute (IHDI) and a member of several other multi-center research groups, including the International Perthes Study Group (IPSG) and the Academic Network of Conservational Hip Outcomes Research (ANCHOR). He also serves on the board of directors for the Legg-Calvé-Perthes Foundation. His active areas of research include public health improvements in hip dysplasia, novel ultrasound techniques for infantile DDH, the optimal management of slipped epiphysis, and hip instability in trisomy 21. Dr. Sankar is a graduate of Cornell University’s college of engineering and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his orthopaedic surgical training at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by two pediatric orthopaedic fellowships at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Los Angeles. He then pursued advanced training in the area of adolescent and young adult hip reconstruction at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sankar has published more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific articles, reviews or textbook chapters, and has written and edited two books. He is happily married to his wonderful wife, and has three energetic (and tiring) young children. He enjoys distance running, gardening, and travel.