Every clinical page on this site is reviewed by Dr. Michael Ast before it is published. Dr. Ast is an orthopedic surgeon in Paramus, New Jersey, who performs knee and hip replacement surgery. He earned his medical degree at Temple University School of Medicine and completed his orthopedic surgery residency at North Shore-LIJ Health System. He finished a fellowship in Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement surgery at Hospital for Special Surgery, where he continues to hold a hospital affiliation, and that training sets the standard for how this site explains knee and hip replacement.
Pages describing partial and total knee replacement, total hip replacement, and rapid recovery, short stay and outpatient joint replacement are checked against that same training. So are pages describing the computer-assisted and robotic-assisted techniques Dr. Ast uses in surgery, including robotic-assisted partial and total knee replacement and robotic-assisted total hip replacement, along with minimally invasive hip and knee replacement and primary, complex and revision total joint replacement.
Dr. Ast's focus includes sports medicine. Content written for active patients, people weighing how a knee or hip issue affects training, work, or daily movement, is reviewed with that focus in mind. This site does not list separate conditions Dr. Ast treats outside joint replacement and reconstruction; it does not present him as managing conditions beyond what his record shows.
Most patients reach this practice through a referring physician, so pages are written to answer a referring clinician's questions as plainly as a patient's. Training, technique, and hospital affiliation are stated as they appear in the record, not summarized or expanded.
Content on this site is educational and is not a substitute for a medical evaluation. Any clinical statistic is cited to a named source with a year. No page states a diagnosis or promises a surgical outcome.
Is this medical content reviewed by a doctor?
Yes. Every page on this site describing a condition, procedure, or treatment option is reviewed by Michael Ast, MD, an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Paramus, New Jersey.
His review checks that the plain-language explanation of a procedure matches current clinical practice and that nothing stated goes beyond what the underlying medical literature supports.
What are the reviewing physician's qualifications?
Dr. Ast completed his orthopedic surgery residency at North Shore, LIJ Health System and went on to fellowship training in adult reconstruction and joint replacement surgery at Hospital for Special Surgery.
His clinical focus areas include sports medicine, and his procedure experience centers on knee and hip replacement: computer-assisted and robotic-assisted partial and total knee replacement, robotic-assisted total hip replacement, minimally invasive hip and knee replacement, and primary, complex, and revision total joint replacement.
Why does this site focus on joint replacement topics?
Because that is where Dr. Ast practices.
The procedure pages on this site describe the techniques he performs and the training behind them, including his fellowship in adult reconstruction and joint replacement surgery, rather than covering orthopedic topics outside his practice.
Does this content replace a visit with a doctor?
No. The pages on this site are written to help a patient understand a procedure before and after an appointment; they are educational, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and they do not substitute for an evaluation by Dr. Ast or another qualified physician.
How are the facts on this site verified?
Each clinical fact is checked against Dr. Ast's training record and the procedures he performs before it is published.
Where this site states a number or a timeline, it names where that figure comes from directly in the text; where a fact cannot be confirmed, it is left out rather than estimated.